Indonesia Ministry of Agriculture’s National Food Brigade and Dataswyft Sign MOU to Boost Food Security With Smart Data Ecosystem
Partnership to modernize agriculture, strengthen food security and attract capital partners through greater transparency in farming practices
14 August 2025, JAKARTA, Indonesia — The National Food Brigade under the Ministry of Agriculture of the Republic of Indonesia and Dataswyft, a distributed network company that enables individuals, businesses and public institutions to store, manage and share their data securely and independently, have signed a memorandum of understanding to jointly develop a smart data ecosystem for Indonesia’s Food Brigade program.
The collaboration aims to digitally empower Indonesia’s agriculture sector through a smart data ecosystem that supports land expansion, enhances field operations, optimizes resource use and enables more effective program monitoring. By making data secure, shareable and user-controlled, the initiative addresses one of the sector’s biggest challenges — the lack of coordination among stakeholders caused by fragmented systems and siloed information. At the heart of this ecosystem are smart data schemes that govern how data is used responsibly and shared transparently.
“Partnering with Dataswyft enables us to use smart identity and data to coordinate multiple agencies, stakeholders and farmers for food security and rural prosperity, accelerating our program,” said Rusmin Lawin, vice chair of the advisory council of the National Food Brigade.
The National Food Brigade, also known as Brigade Pangan, is a government initiative designed to achieve food self-sufficiency and strengthen national food security. Launched by the Ministry of Agriculture, the program focuses on optimizing land use, modernizing agriculture management and increasing crop yields.
At the core of the initiative is the Dataswyft Wallet — a privacy-first digital tool that allows users to collect, own, use, and share their data on their terms. With this digital infrastructure, farmers and agricultural communities can access tailored government and private-sector services, receive personalized support, and contribute verified data to national initiatives, all while retaining control over how their data is used.
The partnership supports Indonesia’s national agenda to achieve food self-sufficiency under President Prabowo Subianto’s leadership. “This is the timely Agritech we urgently need to monitor, supervise and manage the National Food Brigade’s workflow,” said Ichi Indrawan, chairman of the National Food Brigade. “The smart data ecosystem will also serve as a unifying platform for collaboration between farmers, offtakers, agricultural companies and cooperatives.”
“This MOU sets the foundation for seamless digital and physical collaboration across the agricultural value chain, unlocking growth, efficiency and prosperity for Indonesia’s farming communities,” said Davide Ceper, senior director of global strategy and growth at Dataswyft.
The joint initiative will begin with a pilot in southern Sumatra, showcasing the smart data ecosystem in action and setting the benchmark for a broader rollout. The target is to empower 10 million farmers toward food self-sufficiency through the use of the Dataswyft Wallet.
Dataswyft also announced that it is establishing its country operations and HATLAB Studio in Jakarta, a collaborative space that will bring together academics, specialists, technology providers and capital partners committed to developing smart data markets.
“Indonesia is demonstrating bold leadership by adopting a global, cross-border digital public infrastructure of smart data that will enable the country and its people to leapfrog into the next generation digital economy,” said Professor Irene Ng, group CEO of Dataswyft. “This transformation will bring greater transparency to farming practices and open the door for innovative financing instruments, which will be of great interest to our capital partners.”
About The National Food Brigade
The National Food Brigade of Indonesia, also known as "Brigade Pangan," is a government initiative aimed at achieving food self-sufficiency and strengthening national food security. Launched by the Ministry of Agriculture, the program focuses on optimizing land use, modernizing agriculture management, and increasing crop yields.
About Dataswyft
Dataswyft is a distributed network company powering secure, compliant and interoperable data exchange among individuals, businesses and public institutions through advanced technology and strong governance. Central to the Dataswyft Network is the Dataswyft Wallet — a data intermediary embedded in apps and websites that securely facilitates the collection, use and sharing of data across digital systems. Each Dataswyft Wallet includes a personal data account, storing information within a self-owned HAT Microserver. Spun out from years of U.K. academic research, the Dataswyft Network empowers responsible usage and smart data sharing between people, platforms, and systems through a Digital Public Infrastructure. For more information, visit: www.dataswyft.com