Indonesia toward sustainable agriculture - Do technology-based start-ups play a crucial role?

This paper explores the role of technology-based start-ups in supporting the implementation of sustainable agriculture (SA) practices in Indonesia. Through a qualitative multiple-case studies research strategy, this research identifies several roles of startups in implementing SA. The start-ups create sustainable archetypes mainly for the economic and social aspects, but not all of them penetrate the environmental side. Start-ups can contribute to the agricultural system in three ways: (1) focus on solving fundamental problems, (2) focus on solving fundamental problems and providing strategic solutions, and; (3) focus on providing advanced solutions. In the implementation mechanism, the start-ups experienced various risks from the natural environment, the internal environment, or other actors-especially producers-due to dependencies. The disappearance of start-ups from the agriculture system or the inhibition of their business can reduce or hinder the implementation of SA practices. Regarding the debate concerning the necessity of government support for start-ups to achieve sustainability, this paper argues that government support is still needed in a situational just-in-time manner.