Extending Production and Marketing Support to Increase Farmers' Income
Reaching out to small-scale farmers in Indonesian villages
It must be emphasized, though, that the adjustment process cannot be implemented by the poor themselves. It is vital to give special attention to empowerment and equitable opportunities, in order to narrow the disparity gap, and to enable the less-privileged to benefit from the momentum of the globalization process.
The Taiwan Technical Mission: Empowering Small-Scale Farmers in Indonesia
Since 1976, the Taiwan Technical Mission (TTM) in Indonesia, with the help of the International Cooperation and Development Fund (ICDF) of Taiwan ROC and the Indonesian Ministry of Agriculture, has been making significant efforts in helping Indonesian farmers produce high-quality vegetables and other horticultural produce in more than four local areas in Indonesia. Empowerment, or actively targeting programs to meet the needs of the poor, especially the agricultural sector in the rural landscape, is what the mission hopes to achieve.
Through the years, the TTM has also been aiming to establish marketing units in these local villages based on the Taiwanese model with consecutive successes in Eastern and Central Java, Indonesia. The principle behind these attempts toward improving local marketing schemes is to increase the small-scale farmers' capacity for self-help, and to encourage them to take a greater, more active role in the development process.
It is against this backdrop that the TTM, with the assistance of ICDF and in collaboration with FFTC, decided to expand its technology and extension services to help Indonesian farmers facilitate production and marketing of their agricultural produce, particularly in the areas of Malang, Mojokerto, Boyolali and Sleman provinces, in Eastern and Central Java. The marketing system for agricultural produce remains to be a problem in these areas. Hence, farmers need to be empowered in setting up efficient marketing units and self-help marketing organizations to give them a direct economic role in the society, and thereby improve their income and livelihood opportunities.
The joint special project entitled Training-Workshop for the Establishment of Farmers' Self-help Agricultural Marketing Units in Indonesian Farming Villages aims to define problems to be addressed, find suitable extension technologies, and provide specific suggestions by first conducting a survey, and then organizing a training-workshop. This special project focuses on the organizational structure for enhancing marketing potentials in the rural agricultural landscape of Indonesia.
The Field Survey
This field survey, which was conducted on 29 August - 03 September 2005, aimed to collect benchmark data and information related to identifying the technological needs to be addressed in establishing the self-help marketing units in Indonesian villages. The survey team visited eight TTM experiment stations in the local areas of East and Central Java and two large-scale retail outlets in Surabaya and Jakarta.
During the survey, the team conducted dialogues with experts from the TTM, Indonesian government officials and farmers in Surabaya, Yogyakarta and Jakarta. The survey team also attempted to find out the general situation of agricultural production and marketing distribution channel in Indonesia, and the status of the TTM-aided producing areas. Specifically, the survey team identified the production and marketing situation in the survey areas, which include: production capacities by crops; human resources; available capital; technological development level; production costs; farmers' opinion; and municipal governments' support. Also identified during the survey were the agricultural products marketing channel; legal requirements for the self-help agricultural marketing units; and price trends by crop and market. Impact of the TTM extension services to farmers' livelihood
Based on the results of the field survey, there are two basic types of production and marketing practices that the TTM stations in Indonesia have adopted. The first one is the hiring of neighboring farm workers to produce and sell agricultural products within the TTM station (the Mojokerto station). The other one is to provide neighboring farmers with seeds and other inputs and extension services, and to allow the farmers themselves to produce and sell their agricultural products (the Lawang and Sleman station). A special type of marketing is being practiced by a Taiwanese private company, which involves buying agricultural products from neighboring farmers and selling them to marketing channels. The first type is similar to a production cooperative, the second to a purchasing cooperative, and the special type to an investor-owned marketing company.
The TTM's extension activities particularly in terms of production and marketing in the Indonesian villages surveyed proved that ensuring a "level playing field" can make a difference in terms of improving the livelihood of the small-scale farmers. It was evident from the survey results that the production and marketing types being adopted by the TTM have contributed to the increase in farmers' income in the survey areas.
Each TTM station, however, has its own specific problems related to the unique nature of the local area. The Mojokerto station has been struggling with the water shortage problem in the dry season from May to October, hence, is unable to set up its yearly cropping plan. The Lawang station also has difficulties with water sources, as well as lack of postharvest facilities that could otherwise help local farmers produce and store their products to increase their incomes. One major factor that impedes the TTM's extension activities is the farmers' seeming lack of sufficient economic motivation to improve their livelihood, which can be attributed to their value system.
The Next Step
The concept of empowerment, or increasing the motivation and capacity of the small-scale farmers in Indonesia for self-help, can only be effective if there is better targeting of the needs and technological knowledge to be addressed by the extension activities. Through the survey conducted by the project team, the following areas were identified as the focus of the training workshop to be conducted as a second phase of the project:
- To increase farmers' household income through organized production and marketing systems in the rural areas.
- To address the technological needs of the farming villages related to: motivating farmers to realize their production and marketing needs; post-harvest technologies and facilities to enable farmers' to come up with high quality produce; organizing self-help production and marketing units; and establishing stable marketing contracts with domestic and global agricultural product buyers.
In the process of promoting extension activities in the TTM-aided farming villages, it should be noted that the primary goal is to increase farmers' income and to improve their livelihood. The setting up of horticultural production and marketing units is one measure to accomplish this goal. Through the training workshop to be conducted as a second phase of this special project, deliberations must be focused on coming up with a design to establish self-helf horticultural production and marketing units in consideration of the needs and technological knowledge identified during the survey.
Above all, the primary goal and intention of the production and marketing units must be defined clearly as that of alleviating the impoverished plight of Indonesian farmers by exploring their ability to help themselves through profitable and sustainable ventures. From here, the types of TTM station services and activities could be identified, and could be well harmonized with the external conditions and local specific situations of the Indonesian villages.
Index of Images
Figure 1 TTM Production and Marketing Activities in Mojokerto Station (Above) and Boyolali Station (Right)
Figure 2 Survey of Eight Taiwan Technical Mission (TTM) Stations in Farming Villages in East and Central Java, Indonesia
Figure 3 The Special Project Team Composed of Experts from TTM, Icdf, and FFTC Surveys Production and Marketing Sites in Indonesia
