Farmer Organization in Upland Indonesia

Abstract

This paper is a shortened version of a report with a same title written for ICRAF by Satyawan Sunito and Saharuddin, both are staff member of the Faculty of Agriculture, Bogor Agricultural University. This paper is based largely on written documents, discussion with NGO’s and in the case of Lampung (Sumatra) field visits the village communities was done. The development process, the form and character of farmer organizations in Indonesia are heavily influenced by the region where it belong. In this context the rural upland of Indonesia can be roughly divided in dense populated region represented by Java; and scarcely populated regions, which are synonym with regions outside Java, commonly called as the Outer Islands. In the dense populated Java where the production of rice, the national staple food is concentrated government intervention in and control on the rural areas has had already a long history. Farmers groups were formed by the government for the control of technology, process of production and farmers political activity. Only recently under the initiative of the NGO’s more independent farmer organizations have been developed to strengthen farmers position toward the market, against dependency upon agrochemical, in the fight against soil degradation. In the scarce populated Outer Island upland farmers live in more homogenous communities and traditional law still govern daily life and define the boundary of the community resources. However since the 1970th large scale investment in forest timber exploitation, plantation and mining have marginalized these rural communities in the Outer Islands. Recently indigenous community based farmer organizations supported by NGO’s emerge to claim the rights on their ancestors land. Participatory mapping of ancestors land and the development of community based natural resource management became mechanism to strengthen their claim. The differences between farmer organization in Java and that from the Outer Island tend to diminish. Confronted with land scarcity and problems with land rights the farmer organizations in Java extent their activity to include advocacy for land rights. In this more politically colored agenda of both farmers organization in Java and the Outer Island, networking and horizontal integration became an important strategy.