MUHAMMADIYAH EMPOWERS RURAL FARMERS

The Jakarta Post - February 08, 2008

Yogyakarta: The country's second biggest Muslim organization, Muhammadiyah, has been known to concentrate its programs and activities in the education, health and social services sectors in urban areas.

The fact that Muhammadiyah runs thousands of educational institutions ranging from playgroups to universities as well as hospitals and orphanages across the archipelago, is indicative of the organization's commitment to the community.

Lately, however, there seems to be a change in the air -- or more precisely speaking, an expansion of Muhammadiyah's services to the public.

Chairman of the organization, Din Syamsuddin, was recently seen leading a harvest ceremony of a particular agricultural product in a Central Java village.

Around the same time, executives of the organization were spotted in other rural villages in other parts of the country, also attending harvest ceremonies.

It turns out that Muhammadiyah, through its community empowerment council (MPM), has been conducting a pilot project in these villages to help improve economic factors for farmers and introduce more environmentally friendly farming systems.

The project is aimed at helping restore the country's food self-sufficiency while increasing the income and bargaining power of farmers.

"Since its birth, Muhammadiyah has dealt with rural problems," Vice Chairman Haedar Nashir said.

"I think it's time for us to help give farmers an identity and show that farming is a profession in Indonesia," he added.

Speaking separately to The Jakarta Post, Chairman of MPM of Muhammadiyah's central executive board, Said Tuhuleley, said the program would aim to broaden the aims of the organization.

"Yes, Muhammadiyah is good in the fields of education, health and social services but we neglect other areas which directly affect those at the grassroots of our communities," Said said.

Following Muhammadiyah's 2000 congress in Jakarta, a special institution for laborers, farmers and fishermen was established. Yet, as it was only at the central level, the institution failed to have any significant impact at the rural level.

However, the 2005 congress in Malang, East Java, saw the establishment of the community empowerment council directly under the control of Muhammadiyah's central executive board.

The council was tasked with four community empowerment programs that aimed to; increase people's awareness of their rights and responsibilities as citizens, improve people's income and quality of life, provide public policy advocacy and establish a crisis recovery center.

"The council was also established at the provincial and regental levels," said Said, adding that doing so made it easier for the council to execute programs in all levels of society.

Said added the role of the council coincided with the ambitions of founder Ahmad Dahlan, who established the Majelis Penolong Kesengsaraan Oemat (PKO) to help end people's suffering.

In Indonesia, food supply is perceived as one of the biggest problems the country is currently facing.

Said added that more and more poor people around the country were now forced to consume nasi aking (dried, recycled spoiled rice) and queue for long periods to buy cheaper rice. Farmers, he said, were also finding it harder to make ends meet.

"This situation made us decide that one way of helping end people's suffering was through empowering farmers and fishermen."

So far, according to Said, the farmer empowerment program has covered 30 regencies in the provinces of East Java, Central Java, West Java, Maluku and South Sulawesi.

"We are now preparing to include 12 other provinces in the program by April this year," he said, adding some of the provinces included were Bengkulu, North Sumatra, South Sumatra, Lampung, Central Sulawesi, North Maluku, West Nusa Tenggara and West Kalimantan.

In terms of empowering fishermen, he said, MPM has so far run one pilot project for coastal fishpond cultivation (tambak) in Bungoro sub-district, Pangkajene Kepulauan regency, in South Sulawesi.

"We are also preparing a three-year program to create Desa Pesisir Mandiri (self-sufficient coastal villages) aimed at empowering coastal communities."

The empowerment program for fishermen also aims to reduce production costs and improve product quality and quantity.

Source: The Jakarta Post - www.thejakartapost.com