Microfinance, Poverty & Social Capital
By Jet Hermida on Jan 17, 2008 in News Clippings, Organizational Development, Rural Poverty in SEA, Small Farmers to Market
Paper Prepared by: Bambang Ismawan (President and Director, Bina Swadaya)
(A case study of a village where the Self Reliance Development Foundation -Bina Swadaya- works in Indonesia)
Sidamulya village is located in the District of Subang, in the Province of West Java, 25 km away from the main city. Its population is 5431 with 547/km2 of population density. The climate of the village is relatively dry and the rainfall is between 1800 – 2200 mm/year. The land is not very fertile. Out of 325,781 hectares of wet rice fields, only 91,275 hectares are irrigated and the rest depend on rain. Land not under irrigation is 246,084 hectares and 178,800 hectares of state plantation. The volume of rice harvest is 508,331 hectares with production amounting to three tons per hectare (paddy where the hulls have not been removed but separated from the stalks). Total rice production is only 839 tons. The workforce is 3381 and most of them have not completed even elementary school. A majority of them (91,5%) work as peasants. The owners of irrigated fields are 425; there are also 261owners of land not irrigated and the rest work for them. Most of the so-called owners of fields possess less than 0.5 hectare. There are several agricultural implements such as 5 hullers, 26 hand tractors, and 26 traditional ploughs in the village. They do not have shops or markets. Line telephone is only one with the bad signal. The nearest bank is 22 km away.
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