For years, farmers in the remote village of Pallantikang on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi relied on middlemen to sell their produce and found themselves largely isolated from the realities of market demands and price fluctuations.

But when 50 of them recently started going directly to retailers, the outcome was a jump of 80 per cent in their earnings from their rice and cassava and 40 per cent from their corn.

The hope is that the experience will encourage Pallantikang’s farmers to grow more, something that Indonesia badly needs, according to the World Bank, which funded the project. Agricultural production in the country has been declining for two decades. ... Read full article