Indonesia Aquaculture Challenge Project

The AgResults Indonesia Aquaculture Challenge Project was a five-year, US$3.7 million prize competition that aimed to strengthen the country’s aquaculture sector by encouraging private sector actors to drive smallholder farmer adoption of on-farm technologies such as feeders and aerators. By providing a prize for each aerator or feeder sold or rented, the competition aimed to increase productivity, boost farmer income, and strengthen value chain relationships between aquaculture input providers and farmers. In Year 3, the competition added a technical assistance (TA) prize to promote best practices around disease management and water quality. WWF-Indonesia served as the Project Manager.

Indonesia Aquaculture Project Timeline

THE LEARNING JOURNEY

Smallholder aquaculture farmers in Indonesia face multiple challenges related to feed cost and efficiency, water quality, and the quality of fish stocks that constrain productivity and profitability. Feed is a primary cost in aquaculture production, but is often inefficient, accounting for 60-90% of production costs. Low water quality and poor water management limit fish growth and increase rates of fish disease and death.

CONTEST DESIGN

Theory of Change

The project was designed to incentivize processors and feed companies to engage smallholder aquaculture farmers and improve their access to technological inputs that would increase productivity as well as key information on intensification. By facilitating these linkages, the competition enabled farmers to improve water quality, reduce feed costs, and use improved on-farm management practices. The project also encouraged the private sector to teach smallholder farmers how to use aquaculture best practices, perform water quality monitoring, and conduct disease testing with technical assistance “subscriptions.” These improvements collectively increased productivity and reduced the variability in yield, boosting farmer incomes.

Prize Structure

AgResults provided per-unit incentives for sales/rentals of aerators and feeders. In addition to per-unit sales prizes, competitors that met a high sales threshold were eligible for a grand prize. In Year 3, the project launched the Technical Assistance (TA) prize to teach smallholder farmers how to use aquaculture best practices, perform water quality monitoring, and conduct disease testing (for shrimp). The TA prize was a per-unit prize that was awarded based on the commodity and the length of the TA “subscription” service that the competitor provided to the farmer.

Competition Timeline

EXPECTED IMPACT

The project was expected to lay the foundation for stronger value chain relationships among private actors and smallholder farmers in the aquaculture sector. Prioritizing access to finance via the competitors would also position farmers to afford the incentivized technologies, driving longer-term shifts in farming practices. Overall, the project was expected to improve smallholder farmers’ food security and financial standing while also improving the sector’s productivity and sustainability.

AgResults expected to achieve the following by the end of the project:

• 30,000+ feeders and aerators sold or rented
• 14,000 smallholder aquaculture farmers reached
• $12 million increase in farmer income
• 24,000+ MT increase in farmer production over baseline

ACTUAL RESULTS

EVALUATION