Pandawa Agri Pilots Eco-Friendly Pesticide Program For Coffee Farmers In Regenerative Agriculture Drive – CoffeeTalk

Pandawa Agri is an Indonesian life sciences company committed to developing environmentally friendly agricultural inputs that minimize chemical exposure for workers and enhance sustainability. One of its key innovations is a pesticide reductant, a carrier agent designed to improve the efficacy of pesticides while reducing their environmental impact. This reductant enables farmers to reduce pesticide usage by up to 50% while maintaining weed and pest control effectiveness. Furthermore, it boasts a carbon footprint 14 times lower than glyphosate, potentially saving plantations nearly 4,000 tonnes of CO₂-equivalent annually.

In 2024, the venture builder Terratai invested in Pandawa Agri to help scale up its production capacity. CEO Kukuh Roxa reveals that coffee represents a critical strategic opportunity for the company, given Indonesia’s status as one of the largest coffee producers. Many of Indonesia’s coffee exports face challenges in meeting stringent maximum residue levels for herbicides, particularly glyphosate. Although glyphosate remains legal in Indonesia, European markets reject products with detectable residues, leading to significant complications for traders.

To address these challenges, Pandawa Agri has developed an integrated end-to-end agricultural model that aids smallholder farmers in overcoming barriers to adopting new pesticide reduction technologies. Rather than merely selling products, the company offers a comprehensive ecosystem comprising agronomy support, technology packages centered around the reductant, and market access to ensure farmers can sell their produce.

This ecosystem consists of three components: upstream agronomy support, input packages focusing on reductant technology, and downstream market linkages that ensure farmers have access to major buyers, such as multinational food and beverage companies emphasizing low-carbon and regenerative sourcing. This access incentivizes farmers to engage with the ecosystem, as buyers require transparency in pesticide-residue compliance, traceability, and emissions reduction efforts.

Pandawa Agri has identified coffee as one of its two flagship smallholder ecosystems, alongside rice, due to the global demand for regeneratively grown, low-carbon coffee with minimal chemical residues. The company’s reductant technology aims to alleviate the issues exporters face with residue violations. To get ahead, the firm is establishing its coffee ecosystem in Lampung, where a 20-hectare pilot plot has been completed and is set to expand to nearly 200 hectares by 2026. It also plans to develop the first standard operating procedures (SOP) for low-carbon coffee in Asia.

Roxa emphasizes the importance of reducing chemical usage in coffee production and collaborating to create an SOP based on regenerative practices, which could reduce emissions by over 50%. As it prepares to scale its regenerative agriculture coffee ecosystem by mid-2026, Pandawa Agri aims to support at least 10,000 hectares in Lampung, collaborating closely with major multinational corporations to implement regenerative agriculture practices and fulfill the demand for low-carbon coffee. The company is thus positioned to assist both plantation clients and smallholder ecosystems in rice and coffee, while simultaneously working with international buyers focused on low-carbon, regenerative agricultural supply chains.

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