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3 Int'l J. Soc. Sci. Stud. 129 (2015)
Comprehending Poverty in Rural Indonesia: An In-Depth Look inside Paddy Farmer Household in Marginal Land Area of Banyuasin District, South Sumatra Province

handle is hein.journals/ijsoctu3 and id is 412 raw text is: 




                                                                      International Journal of Social Science Studies
                                                                                     Vol. 3, No. 3; May 2015
          Fam      e                                                          ISSN 2324-8033 E-ISSN 2324-8041
                                                                              Published by Redfame Publishing
                                                                                  URL:  http://ijsss.redfame.com


                      Comprehending Poverty in Rural Indonesia:

 An   In-depth Look inside Paddy Farmer Household in Marginal Land Area

                    of  Banyuasin District, South Sumatra Province

                                        Nina Lisanty', Hiromi Tokuda2
 Graduate School of Bioresources, Mie University, Japan.
 2 Bioresources Faculty, Mie University, Japan.

 Correspondence: Nina Lisanty, Graduate School of Bioresources, Mie University, Tsu City Kurimamachiyachou 1577,
 Mie Prefecture, Japan.


 Received: February 25, 2015         Accepted: March 12, 2015              Available online: April 15, 2015
 doi: 10. 11114/ijsss.v3i3.686       URL:  http://dx.doi.org/10.11114/ijsss.v3i3.686


Abstract
Indonesia's steady economic growth in recent decade has led to a gradual reduction in overall poverty in the country.
However, according to The World Bank (2011), 43.3 percent of Indonesians live on less than $2 a day The majority of
those poor live in rural area and earn their primary income from agriculture. Through an in-depth look inside the poor
farmer households of the marginal land of South Sumatra, Indonesia, this paper exposes that in spite of being food
producers, the farmer households are food insecure. They also do not have adequate income and employment in the area.
The  natural state of the area and the unequal social order in the country are among the roots of poverty. The
Government's role in terms of poverty reduction should be strengthened. The current need of the farmers regarding this
issue is the regulation on laborer wage and on the practice of bonded labor and moneylenders.
Keywords:  poverty, poor farmer, marginal land, food insecurity
1. Introduction
A famous Dutch writer Multatuli (pen name of Eduard Douwes Dekker) in his book Max Havelaar (1860) wrote,
     Famine------? In Java the rich and fertile, famine?------ Yes, reader, a few years ago whole districts were
     depopulated by famine; mothers offered to sell their children for food, mothers ate their own children. ------
     (p. 68-69)
Multatuli explained about the abject poverty and starvation among the farmers in the Dutch East Indies (present-day
Indonesia) as the result of widespread abuse of Dutch colonial power. Today, 69 years since its independence from
colonial rule for more than 3.5 centuries, Indonesia has been struggling to move forward. Indonesia's economy
continues to grow steadily, and it has now achieved the status of a middle-income country. Data from Badan Pusat
Statistik [BPS] (2012a), the Government's Central Statistic Agency, proved that steady economic growth has led to a
gradual reduction in overall poverty in the country, which has fallen from 17 percent in 2004 to 12.5 percent in 2011.
However, The World Bank (2011) stated that 43.3 percent of Indonesians live on less than $2 a day.
United Nations (UN) Statement on June 1998, signed by the head of all UN Agencies, defined poverty as a lack of basic
capacity to participate effectively in society. It means not having enough to feed and cloth a family, not having a school
or clinic to go to, not having the land on which to grow one's food or a job to earn one's living, not having access to
credit. It means insecurity, powerlessness, and exclusion of individuals, households, and communities. It means
susceptibility to violence, and it often implies living on marginal or fragile environments, without access to clean water
or sanitation.
Rural Poverty Portal (2012) confirmed that 16.6 percent of rural people are poor compared with 9.9 percent of the urban
population. This means that there are millions of small farmers, farm workers, small breeders, and fishermen who are
very poor. For decades, the Indonesian Government's main goal in the agriculture sector has been focusing on how to
improve the nation's production, yet it left the main actors, producers and farmers to contend with poverty. Poverty is
increasingly concentrated in rural areas where more than half of the population live and agriculture is the main source of


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