The threat of world hunger is in sight. It is not the first time that world bodies have voiced concerns about the food crisis. The UN said this time it is a famine like never before.
In fact, what is happening now could wipe out the efforts to tackle famine that have been made over the last few decades.
The problems are indeed diverse. It is not only climate change that makes the weather more extreme. There are conflicts in the world's food barns and economic problems are also factors that strengthen food insecurity.
In the country, in addition to inviting the people to be grateful because the price of rice is not skyrocketing, President Joko Widodo also asked that there be no abandoned land. All must be planted, all must be productive to produce food.
"The new pandemic will recover, then the second problem arises, namely the war in Ukraine. What is happening now is that many countries are starting to have food shortages, starting to run out of food supplies. This is a blessing that we must take because food prices are rising so that there should be no abandoned land, everything must be productive," said Jokowi, the President's nickname, while attending a thanksgiving event for agricultural products in Tumbrep Village, Batang Regency, Central Java, some time ago.
As reported by Antara, he encouraged farmers to produce staple foods ranging from rice, corn, cassava and porang. He said the government had distributed more than 5 million hectares of social land to farmers, 324 hectares of which were in Java.
"Please plant rice, if you want to plant corn, please, if you want porang, please. Because, other countries need it. This is an opportunity for farmers," he said.
He questioned the land that had obtained a business use rights permit (HGU), but had been lying idle for more than 10 to 20 years. Whereas at the same time, Social Forestry land has a strategic role in opening up businesses for farmers and the people.
The government is planning to distribute land through Social Forestry to open up opportunities for communities living outside the forest to reap the benefits of the forest in a sustainable manner.
That is, not by participating in clearing forests or selling endangered animals. People can utilize the land by farming or raising livestock.
Social Forestry itself is a sustainable forest management system implemented in State Forest Areas or Rights Forests/Customary Forests implemented by local communities or Customary Law Communities to improve their welfare. Its forms are diverse, there are Village Forests, Community Forests, People's Plantation Forests, Customary Forests, and Forestry Partnerships.
It is not without reason that the President is so insistent on optimizing Social Forestry in the country. KLHK itself said that this program could target
directly 10.2 million poor people in 25,863 villages around forest areas.
Of that number, it is estimated that 71,061 TP3T depend on forest areas for their livelihood. Validnews' calculation is that at least 7,248,120 people will directly have their economic potential boosted via social forestry.
As of December 31, 2021, the Indicative Map and Social Forestry Area (PIAPS) Revision VII noted that the government had allocated approximately 14,677,386 hectares of state forest areas. Consisting of approximately 3,717,071 hectares of definitive areas or those already licensed for Social Forestry. The remaining 10,960,316 hectares are indicative areas for Social Forestry.
Pessimistic About Reaching Target
Unfortunately, this seemingly cool program is still entangled in various obstacles. The realization of the target area achievement is the main one.
Director of PKPS of the Ministry of Environment and Forestry Syafda Roswandi admitted that until July 2022, there was still a gap between the achievement of the number of SK units and the target area of Social Forestry management access. This means that the achievement of SK units has not run parallel with the achievement of the target area.
A number of provinces have achieved legal access distribution that is able to exceed the target set by the PKPS Directorate's strategic plan. However, there are a number of provinces
which has not reached the target of providing legal access distribution for Social Forestry.
"The above problems are the trigger for the gap between the target for access to manage Social Forestry and the current realization," Syafda explained to Validnews, Tuesday (5/7).
In detail, access to manage Social Forestry has reached 198 units from the targeted 200 units for this year. Meanwhile, the access was given to 118,150 families covering an area of ±118,150 hectares or 59,08% from the 2022 target.
The above achievement data shows that the average area per SK is approximately 596 hectares/SK. This number is relatively low from the target set in the strategic plan with a reference of around 1,000 hectares/SK.
"Thus, in the implementation of the target of providing access to PS management to the community, currently there are developing limiting factors on the site which cause a decrease in the realization of the area," he continued.
Regarding the realization of social forestry permits planned in the RPJMN for 2020-2024, Andri is skeptical that the government can achieve the target. This is because, of the 12.7 million hectares of permits for Social Forestry, only around 5.01 million hectares have been completed as of July 2022.
“With two years left, it seemed impossible to achieve, so it is now being pushed.
Presidential Decree on the Acceleration of Social Forestry," said Andri.
Based on the draft of the presidential regulation, it will later be scheduled that the Social Forestry target of 12.7 million hectares can be achieved by 2030 through a series of strategies. Namely, the strategy of accelerating access, accelerating assistance, and business management.
Some of these accelerations are also not only focused on quantity, so as to present the quality of Social Forestry as it should be. Including a downstream system that can achieve the desired economic potential.
"For example, how is there business assistance, so that the community can directly benefit even to the point where the business is noticed... Then there must be intensive assistance, the business is also optimized the same as downstreaming, where to sell it. So that the community gets economic benefits," he explained.
In addition to being discussed by related ministries/institutions, he hopes that the draft policy can be supported by local governments and the private sector.
Not without obstacles
Mentoring is acknowledged as still one of the major obstacles. The reason, according to the Chairman of the Indonesian Social Forestry Activists Association (AP2SI) Roni Usman Kusuma, is the lack of support on the political side of the budget.
The amount of budget disbursed does not support the implementation of the program. In fact, this program has been running since 2007 and continues to expand the target area and scheme in 2016.
Meanwhile, in the 2020-2024 RPJMN, Social Forestry is a national strategic program, which has been strengthened by Law 11/2020 on Job Creation Articles 29A and 29B. AP2SI assesses that this program has not been well socialized at the grassroots level. In fact, there are still many regional heads who do not understand the concept of Social Forestry.
"(So it has not) made it a priority program at the provincial and district levels, to become a lever in efforts to eradicate poverty and conflict," Roni explained to Validnews, Wednesday (6/7).
The perception of Social Forestry is not yet a priority in the region. This impression arises from the fact that regional development planning documents have not integrated Social Forestry policies that are references for related Regional Work Units (SKPD), in order to allocate regional budgets.
The lack of support makes mentoring not run well. In fact, farmers are still stuttering in facing various problems ranging from the Social Forestry scheme, superior commodities, access to capital, and tenurial conflicts that often occur.
Roni admitted that technical obstacles also approached the farmer groups running this program. Including low institutional capacity of farmers, complicated management plan documents that are expensive, and minimal assistance. Ultimately, of course, it is related to capital and the quality of forest product processing.
Executive Secretary of the Community Forestry Communication Forum Andri Santosa agreed. Downstreaming of products from Social Forestry has not developed in terms of capability, equipment, and capital.
He did not deny that the government had helped in some areas, but assistance was needed to unravel the problem.
Unfortunately, on the mentoring side, obstacles arise because most non-governmental organizations (NGOs) help communities only up to the advocacy process which is limited to how communities obtain permits or approvals alone.
"There are still few NGO assistants who have the ability to assist the community in post-harvest processing, let alone (for example) becoming baristas," said Andri to Validnews via telephone, Wednesday (6/7).
In fact, the government has a target for each Social Forestry permit to have one companion. However, again this target is hampered by a limited budget. He informed, several parties
is currently trying to mobilize forestry-agricultural extension workers.
Then regarding capital, even though the President has received direct instructions for Himbara to assist Social Forestry, especially in Java, the distribution scheme is still considered inadequate to meet the needs.
PS users can access KUR but with conventional loans to customers in general, installments are made monthly. For commodities that are not harvested monthly, this is a problem.
He suggested that the loan system be in accordance with the specifics of the commodity, like the operation of the Forestry Public Service Agency (BLU) in the past. Currently, the related BLU is included in the Ministry of Finance through the Environmental Fund Management Agency (BPDLH)
The Test of Endurance of the Successful
Even though Social Forestry has been running, it can still stumble upon problems. Deddy Hermansjah, a companion of the Forest Farmer Group (KTH) of the Forest Village Community Institution (LMDH) Wonolestari in Burno Village, Lumajang, said that the Social Forestry Business Group (KUPS) that he manages has not had any problems at the technical level such as marketing farmer products and others.
This happened because since long ago, LMDH Wonolestari has connected farmers with Village Unit Cooperatives (KUD).
local, whose products were then absorbed by Nestle Indonesia. Understandably, this KUPS has a platinum predicate.
Additional information, KLHK creates levels of KUPS independence in several categories, namely blue, silver, gold, and platinum. KUPS with a platinum predicate indicates that KUPS has a broad, permanent and sustainable market; both nationally and internationally.
Until now, referring to goKUPS data from the Directorate General of PSKL, from 7,644 SK Units that have been received by ±1,106,221 KK, 9,254 KUPS units have been formed nationally in four classes. Namely blue (4,685 KUPS), silver (3,941 KUPS), gold (580 KUPS), and platinum (48 KUPS).
Of the KUPS above, only around 189 KUPS units (2%) are cooperative legal entities, in the blue class there are 123 units, silver there are 65 units and gold there is only 1 unit.
However, it does not mean that they do not face any challenges at all. Just so you know, LMDH Wonolestari oversees the Dairy Cattle Farmers KUPS, Ecotourism KUPS, Forest Products KUPS, Senduro Goat Farmers KUPS, and Handicraft KUPS.
Farmers or ranchers do not face any obstacles regarding marketing access. However, other trials come from nature. Starting from the presence of the Covid-19 pandemic which has forced tourism access to be closed to limit people's mobility.
"In fact, ecotourism in our place is very viral and crowded. Visitors per day can reach 3-4 thousand people, then tested by covid-19 so that for two years it was completely closed," said Deddy, Wednesday (6/7).
Slowly but surely, this sentiment is starting to subside. This year, ecotourism in Burno Village, Lumajang, East Java is starting to recover after being battered by the corona pandemic.
However, now it is the turn of the Senduro Dairy and Goat Farmers KUPS to be tested by Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD). No wonder, cow's milk production has decreased by around 70-80%. More or less, the economy of the dairy farming community there is facing a shaky situation.
Corporatization of PS Farmers
Roni suggested that the farmer corporatization scheme could be the answer to the challenges faced in PS so far. Through organizing, farmers can be encouraged to collaborate to become farmer corporations that have a larger economic scale.
Although he admitted again, changing the current business governance of farmers into farmer corporations is not an easy job. Especially, related to integrating the function of the entire value chain from upstream to downstream.
Moreover, farmer corporations face their own challenges.
For example, there is no legal umbrella for farmer corporations through a presidential decree that regulates the implementation, division of tasks and authority in each ministry/institution in the process of building them.
Limited business cooperation networks and access to financing for farmer corporations in running their businesses are also part of the obstacles.
"Finally, the capacity of farmer human resources in managing farmer corporations professionally is still limited," concluded Roni.
Similarly, Deddy also assessed that farmer cooperatives are intended to protect farmers from various speculative efforts outside of the normal network. His KUPS seeks to connect with a normal network, so that both are protected and benefit each other.
The FMD disaster is a concrete example of this scheme that can be a cushion to stem the losses received by all parties from livestock farmers to the private sector in LMDH Wonolestari. In his assessment, this scheme is a very good and safe connection network for the community.
"In essence, I am trying to secure the economic potential of the community," explained Deddy.
Syafda has the same perception; farmer cooperatives can be created to overcome capital and marketing of agricultural products in Social Forestry. Marketing constraints occur because when focusing on cultivating the land, farmers have not thought about the marketing process of the results. Marketing and distribution of new products occurs when farmers collect the results.
"Likewise for capital, because they are not oriented towards big business, they only think about the existing funding conditions, so they do it with the available capital," explained Syafda.
News source:
https://www.validnews.id/ekonomi/jalan-panjang-pemberdayaan-lewat-perhutanan-sosial
July 07, 2022
