SCOPI and Members Drive for Accurate Farmer Income Measurement to Achieve Welfare
Jakarta, November 11, 2025. The Sustainable Coffee Platform of Indonesia (SCOPI), in collaboration with the Sustainable Food Lab (SFL), held the "Living Income Workshop: Actual Farmer Income Data Measurement". This interactive workshop was conducted for SCOPI members and partners including government official as key coffee sector stakeholders to discuss a standard methodology for measuring farmers' actual income. This step is fundamental to designing more effective programs to close the income gap for coffee farmers in Indonesia.
The workshop's focus was the "Living Income" concept, which is the income needed for a farming family to afford a decent standard of living, covering food, housing, education, healthcare, and emergency savings. To determine this, a "Living Income Benchmark" (LIB) is used, which is the standard cost of decent living in a specific area, subsequently compared against "Actual Income" (AI), or the net real income received by farmers. The difference between the two is called the "Income Gap," which becomes the focus of stakeholder interventions.
"This workshop is an important step to align understanding, especially for our members. This workshop not only discusses the Living Income concept but also delves into methods for calculating farmers' Actual Income with the data we have," said Ade Aryani, Executive Director of SCOPI. "By knowing the gap between actual income and the living income standard, we can design more targeted programs in the coffee sector to close that gap."
Christina Archer, Senior Advisor, Smallholder Livelihoods from the Sustainable Food Lab (SFL), added, "The measurement of a Living Income Benchmark is very important as a shared quantitative reference to address common challenges. This methodology has been globally recognized, including by the International Coffee Organization (ICO), and implemented by ICO member countries like Indonesia to identify income gaps tangibly."
The workshop explored various technical challenges in measuring smallholder farmer income, considering their complex and diverse farming systems. The morning session focused on understanding the basic concepts of Living Income and the Actual Income calculation methodology. The discussion became interactive as participants discussed technical challenges related to data variation and systemic complexities in the field that will affect the calculations. The afternoon session then continued with data mapping strategies to unify and utilize existing data for Actual Income calculations.
As a main follow-up, SCOPI will explore how its function as a platform can consolidate Living Income initiatives and programs from stakeholders that were discussed in this workshop. The agreed-upon data and methodology will be formulated into "Sub-national Living Income Benchmarking". This shared standard will become a reference for SCOPI members, the government, and other partners in designing more effective and measurable intervention programs to close the income gap for coffee farmers in Indonesia.