Agrarian reform is perceived as a policy option for solving a variety of pressing socio-economic problems, especially in rural areas. The idea is has long been popular in most countries, including Indonesia, and is still relevant today.
Agrarian reform is stipulated in our Basic Agrarian Law No. 5/1960, which was created to redress land ownership imbalances in the post-colonial era. It obligates the state to regulate land and guide its utilization. The idea is to use sovereign land for maximizing prosperity for the people, both individually and collectively.
However, history tells us that agrarian reform has never been fully implemented. For a country with 101 million hectares of land suitable for agriculture, the fact that the average land ownership for farmers is only 0.4 hectares seems unacceptable.
As an agrarian-based economy, it is crucial for Indonesia to ensure land rights for approximately 50 million people (44.3 percent of the total labor force) who work in agriculture-related industries.
Furthermore, of 32.53 million poor people in Indonesia, 20.62 million still live in rural areas. One of the reasons rural people are still poor is because they lack land rights.
A recent study by the United Nations Human Rights Council questioned the relationship between land, agrarian reform and access to an adequate food supply.
The document reiterated the declaration of the 2006 International Conference on Agrarian Reform and Rural Development, where 95 countries recognized that one important way to ensure the right to food was land reform focused on providing land access to marginalized groups.
History shows that redistributing land to landless and poor rural families can be a very effective way of improving rural welfare (Ziegler, 2002). Land reforms in Japan, Korea, Taiwan, China and Cuba have had a significant impact on reducing poverty and hunger and increasing economic growth.
The Landless Workers’ Movement of Brazil (MST) proved that agrarian reform was also an effective means of creating new jobs. The cost of creating a job in the Brazilian commercial sector is between 2 and 20 times more costly than creating a job on farmland through effective agrarian reform.
In Indonesia, approximately 15.6 million households are smallholder farmers or landless rural families.
Another 8.59 million people are unemployed. The Central Statistics Agency (BPS) said 200,000 workers moved out of agriculture-related jobs last year. This means that although agriculture has the potential to create jobs, it is difficult to stay in the business. Of course, one of the primary difficulties involves land rights.
Agrarian reform is the most debated policy related to issues of food productivity. Indonesia is a net importer of soybeans, sugar, meat and milk. Land ownership inequalities have made it easier for big land owners to produce agricultural crops using the estate or plantation model. Monoculture cash crops (such as palm oil and rubber) are thriving, but at the expense of food production.
Production of food is not the only goal of farming. Nonetheless, there still are millions of people to feed in a country where production of staple foods (especially rice) is in decline relative to a growing population. There needs to be better incentives to make food production a more attractive employment option.
Redistributing land for food production and providing effective incentives focused on capacity building, market access and fair pricing to guarantee our national food security.
In response to the expectations of millions of landless and smallholder farmers in Indonesia, in 2007 President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono asserted that the government intended to pursue agrarian reforms by providing the public with greater access to agricultural land.
Implementation, however, is still very technical, and some measures are not moving forward in accordance with the World Bank version of land tenure, including (but not limited to) titling, cadastres and land registries, which do not sufficiently address problems associated with food security, land rights, human rights and justice.
Vulnerable smallholder and landless farmers — and even consumers — in Indonesia need to prepare for a wave of change. Agrarian reform focused on stabilizing food production would be a good start. The government could initiate a comprehensive national reform program for food incorporating aspects of land ownership and market access. A participatory process involving civil society will be crucial to ensuring that the right people get the benefits they are entitled to. The National Land Agency (BPN) will play a significant role in surveying and registering the 7.3 million hectares of unclaimed land throughout Indonesia.
Furthermore, the government has to ensure essential services, such as farming credit on reasonable terms, infrastructure, market access and supportive environmental policies. As a national initiative, the program will also require a strong commitment to capitalizing on synergies that exist among government departments and agencies and their non-government counterparts.
The writer is the head of the International Relations Department of the Indonesian Farmers Union (SPI). This is his personal opinion.
