Food security and rural development

Learning from the ILO’s experiences in promoting food security and sustainable rural development

To jointly tackle the food security and improve the rural development in the Indonesia, the ILO, in collaboration with the Ministry of Villages, Disadvantaged Regions and Transmigration and the Food Agricultural Organization (FAO), has developed a two-year joint programme on decent work for food security and sustainable development in NTT.

News | Jakarta, Indonesia | 28 November 2016
From left to right: Francecsco d'Ovidio, Country Director of the ILO in Indonesia, Alette Van Leur, Director for Sectoral Department of ILO Geneva, Anwar Sanusi, Secretary General of the Ministry of Villages, Disadvantaged Regions and Transmigration and Bambang Sage, Provincial Planning Development of NTT
Food insecurity is one of the most significant development constraints in Nusa Tenggara Timur (NTT) Province of Indonesia. Food availability is significantly impacted by severe agro-climatic conditions and seasonality. Some efforts have been taken to assist the Government of NTT in promoting agricultural production and in adopting measures for its farmers.

Led by the Ministry of Villages, the joint programme was funded by the Luxembourg Agency for Development Cooperation and the ILO, focused on increased labour productivity, enhanced employment opportunities and expanding entrepreneurial opportunities in key agro-food value chains, particularly maize, seaweed and livestock.

To realize our commitment, the Government of Indonesia through the Ministry of Villages allocated more than 20.7 trillion rupiah for rural development which also meant that each village received 320 million rupiah. We have increased the allocation to 46.98 trillion rupiah this year, and so far we have transferred 82 per cent of the budget to all villages in the country."

Anwar Sanusi, Secretary General of the Ministry of Villages, Disadvantaged Regions and Transmigration

Anwar Sanusi, Secretary General of the Ministry of Villages, Disadvantaged Regions and Transmigration, stated that food security and sustainable rural development were very important for Indonesia. Rural development is one of the main priorities for Indonesia under the President Joko Widodo.

“To realize our commitment, the Government of Indonesia through the Ministry of Villages allocated more than 20.7 trillion rupiah for rural development which also meant that each village received 320 million rupiah. We have increased the allocation to 46.98 trillion rupiah this year, and so far we have transferred 82 per cent of the budget to all villages in the country,” said Anwar in his opening during the closing ceremony of this joint project held on 23 November in Jakarta.

Indonesia is one of the ILO’s member States which is fully embraced the decent work for rural development with strong supports from its tripartite constituents, aimed to unleash potentials of and other opportunities in the rural areas."

Alette Van Leur, Director for Sectoral Department of ILO Geneva

Appraising the commitment of the Government of Indonesia, Alette Van Leur, Director for Sectoral Department of ILO Geneva, complimented the willingness of Indonesia to become the first pilot country for food security and rural development. “Indonesia is one of the ILO’s member States which is fully embraced the decent work for rural development with strong supports from its tripartite constituents, aimed to unleash potentials of and other opportunities in the rural areas,” she said

During the closing ceremony, achievements of this joint project were highlighted. Lessons learnt and best practices of the programme were also exchanged amongst the participants from relevant, among others, ministries, international and national organizations, academia, workers’ organizations, employers’ organizations and so forth.

Key achievements of the Decent Work for Food Security and Sustainable Rural Development:

  • Under the supervision of the Kupang district government, specifically animal husbandry department, 161 villages have been able to have a synchronised and integrated plan of action to enhance productivity in cattle sectors as well as agriculture sector in general through a comprehensive Masterplan that has incorporated decent work and good animal husbandry practice.
  • Around 11 collective marketing groups, consisting of 5 to 10 farmers groups of 20 to 25 small-holder farmers, have diverse market networking which offers more incentives as well as profit margin and have better understanding in developing ways to improve working conditions.
  • Workshop results on occupational safety and health has been replicated by the Ministry of Manpower in one similar workshop in Lampung and have been tried out in two villages. A supplement check-list for occupational safety and health in livestock and maize sectors have been developed and tried out in four villages.
  • Five cattle farmers groups, consisting of 20 individual cattle breeders, have improved their businesses and have given access to credits above IDR 500 million due to better financial and business planning as well as management.
  • Approximately 350 smallholder corn farmers have enjoyed a better market certainty thanks to the contract that have been made by the local trading groups or joint collective marketing groups that have facilitated new market networking.
  • Three seaweed trading groups or joint collective trading groups have pursued a new business of developing local organic fertilizer and pesticide as new business opportunities for income generation.
  • Five local institutions has adopted the ILO tools to be implemented in their own entrepreneurship training activities. To date, a total of 400 additional participants have been trained by these institutions. The Cooperative training centre at the provincial level run by the cooperative department has allocated funds to trained more than 500 youth in the 2017 fiscal year and one university in Sumba Timur has adopted the financial management tools as supplementary module for the students.
  • All cattle farmers in the four targeted villages have benefited from a new mechanism of trading and have improved market transparency thanks to the dialogue process that have been facilitated by the project.
  • Development of a market information system by ten local trading or joint collective marketing groups. The system has been updated regularly to promote the facilitation to wider market and to encourage farmers to join the collective marketing mechanism.