Penguatan Kelembagaan Kelompok Tani dan Koperasi dalam Pengembangan Kemitraan Perkebunan Kelapa Sawit (Studi Kasus di Desa Seresam Kecamatan Seberida Kabupaten Indragiri Hulu Provinsi Riau)

Abstract

Dalam rangka mencapai percepatan kemandirian daerah, salah satu alternatif yang perlu dilakukan adalah dengan melakukan pengembangan kelembagaan pembangunan berbasis masyarakat. Kelembangaan kelompok tani dan koperasi merupakan kelembagaan petani yang esensial menjadi wadah penggerak peranan dan tangggung jawab petani dalam rangka mengembangkan kelompok us aha bersama untuk mendorong kegiatan perekonomian masyarakat desa, meningkatkan pendapatan masyarakat dan membuka lapangan kerja sehingga akhirnya dapat meningkatkan kesejahteraan masyarakat. Namun pad a kenyataannya kelembagaan tersebut belum mampu menyelesaikan semua masalah dalam proses pembangunan ekonomi masyarakat pedesaan.

Institutions of farmer's group and cooperative are actually community-based development which is essential to serve as the motivator of farmer's role and responsibility in developing farmer's group to boost economic activity of the village. This study was conducted to formulate a strategy for institutional reinforcement of farmer's group and cooperative in an effort to improve the welfare of plasma fanmers of palm oil plantation in Seresam village. Based on the study result of fanmer's group as a shared business unit, a number of problems were encountered, among others: (1) the decrease in fanmers' income, (2) the weak pattern of fanmer's group leadership and management, (3) dependent fanmer's group activity plan, (4) unchanged officials and undone activities, (5) the low competence of human resources in developing a business unit, (6) the low social capital of fanmers in terms of cooperation, trust, and collective rules in a community. In the development program of palm oil plantation in Seresam village using the partnership pattern of nucleus plasma between cooperative and PT. Meganusa Intisawit, cooperative institution had a weak bargaining power with the partner company and such problems as: cooperative was not involved in manpower and not given the rights and authority to carry out monitoring and evaluation; TP3D II Inhu was not transparent and professional; memorandum of understanding was not aspiratory and not transparent in determining prices; and nucleus company did not do anything related to training and development of farmer human resources and not transparent in plantation development capital. To overcome the problems, it was necessary to fonmulate an activity program to reinforce fanmer's group and cooperative to develop shared economic activity using an approach of Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) through: (1) Program of farmer's group and cooperative reinforcement to be able to carry out the business activity of farmer's group and cooperative so that it will develop into a shared business group which was not only efficient but also business-oriented, (2) Program of shared business development was aimed to develop group-based productive business unit to increase the farmers' income. With the institutional reinforcement of farmer's group and cooperative, it was expected that farmers would have skill and professional competence in managing their business. As a result, there would be an organization of farmer's group and cooperative which was independent, productive, transparent in financial management, and harmonious in cooperation.