Research Article
Community Cooperative as Self-Empowerment: Smallholders Palm Oil Farmers in Kotawaringin Barat, Central Kalimantan, Indonesia
@INPROCEEDINGS{10.4108/eai.9-10-2020.2304763, author={Laila Kholid Alfirdaus and S. Rouli Manalu and Hendra Try Ardianto and Kushandajani Kushandajani}, title={Community Cooperative as Self-Empowerment: Smallholders Palm Oil Farmers in Kotawaringin Barat, Central Kalimantan, Indonesia}, proceedings={Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Indonesian Social and Political Enquiries, ICISPE 2020, 9-10 October 2020, Semarang, Indonesia}, publisher={EAI}, proceedings_a={ICISPE}, year={2021}, month={3}, keywords={community cooperative self-empowerment palm oil smallholders}, doi={10.4108/eai.9-10-2020.2304763} }
- Laila Kholid Alfirdaus
S. Rouli Manalu
Hendra Try Ardianto
Kushandajani Kushandajani
Year: 2021
Community Cooperative as Self-Empowerment: Smallholders Palm Oil Farmers in Kotawaringin Barat, Central Kalimantan, Indonesia
ICISPE
EAI
DOI: 10.4108/eai.9-10-2020.2304763
Abstract
This article discusses Tani Subur cooperative, functions as community's self- empowerment in palm oil business. While palm oil business is identical with giant and sometime multi-national corporation, in Kotawaringin Barat small-holder farmers succeed to grow the business. They build and operate cooperative to maintain the farmers’ assets, help manage cash-flow of the farmers, as well as to build bargaining position to the company and the local government. Driven by the difficulties in individually run artisanal palm oil business, farmers who are mostly transmigrants from Java or Javanese transcendent, formed cooperative to unite voice before the company and the governments to maintain palm oil fruit’s price. Further, the cooperative has been an effective place to support farmers gaining RSPO (Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil) certificate that asserted their farming products complied with international standard. Based on field research in 2019, this research identifies palm oil cooperative as a crucial space for farmers’ self-empowerment. Indeed, there are still challenges in sustaining the cooperative’s function as a bargaining instrument for the farmers. However, so far, palm oil cooperative has been an important tool to support palm oil smallholders to sustain their businesses.