Popular Report 2010

POPULAR REPORT 2010 1

Foreword Content 2. Content 2. Foreword 4. About VECO Indonesia 6. Summary 8. Jakarta 10. Jawa 12. Bali 14. Sulawesi 16. East Nusa Tenggara 1 18. East Nusa Tenggara 2 20. Learning Organisation 22. Finance

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In 2010 Indonesia is experiencing a remarkable economical growth and increasing involvement in the international arena. Indonesia is now a member of the G20 and is also considered to be one of the new upcoming large economies in the world (BRICs). It looks as if the future becomes brighter for Indonesians.

With this rather positive news about Indonesia it is also interesting to see what happens inside the country itself especially with its people. Domestic spending goes up markedly and on a tourist island like Bali it is very clear that ever more domestic tourists come to the island to spend their holidays. However, only a few hour’s drive or short flight from Bali it is easy to see a totally different Indonesia. Many farmers lead a dignified but sometimes economically difficult life and infrastructure for transport, health and education are often underdeveloped in these areas.

It seems as if the benefits that some people in Indonesia enjoy from this new economic momentum are not intended for most farmers in Indonesia. Indonesia has a large population, consists of many islands which are far apart and has major infrastructural and capacity building challenges but this is no excuse to leave farmers outside.

The challenge for family farmers is to get better access to the economic opportunities in the agricultural sector so they can improve their livelihood situation.

VECO thinks that the solution will be to organize farmers better and build up know how and experience to do business in name of their members. This also needs to be supported by government and private sector through creating an enabling environment supporting farmers through pro-farmer legislation/regulations and decision making. Another issue is the pull factor from the markets and finally the

consumers themselves as an important factor directly related to improving livelihood of family farmers.

In 2010 VECO-Indonesia and its partners have helped farmers to create good business opportunities and to improve production of Coffee, Cocoa, Healthy Rice and Peanuts commodities through training and facilitation of farmer organizations.

Several links were established between private companies and farmer organizations leading to a direct business relation between them (e.g. PT Armajaro/Amanah, PT Mars/Jantan, PT SBO/ Apolli). Three season-long Farmer Field Schools for Coffee and Cocoa were implemented that trained farmer organizations how to improve production. On the consumer front partnerships were build between consumer groups and farmer organizations and a youth focused healthy food awareness project was started. Further details of activities conducted by VECO Indonesia and

its partners in 2010 can be found further on in this annual report.

Wish you good reading and let us know what you think about our work Rogier Eijkens Regional Representative VECO Indonesia

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About VECO Indonesia 4

For more than 25 years, Vredeseilanden Country Office (VECO) Indonesia has worked continuously with its partners, including non-governmental organisations (NGOs), farmer organisations, national network organisations, commercial enterprises, and organised farmers, to achieve one goal: a better negotiating position for farmers.

This is done through three main programs: Sustainable Agriculture Chain Development, Advocacy, and Consumer Awareness.

Like all the networks in West Africa, East

Africa, South America, Central America and Southeast Asia, VECO Indonesia is under Vredeseilanden, which is headquartered in Belgium. In Indonesia, VECO Indonesia works in six main areas: Greater Jakarta, Bali, Java, Sulawesi, East Nusa Tenggara 1 (NTT1) and East Nusa Tenggara 2 (NTT2).

All are coordinate from VECO Indonesia headquarters in Denpasar, Bali.

and approaches. In the past, our intervention focused on the production aspect of sustainable agriculture. However, VECO Indonesia is now focusing on sustainable agriculture practices as part of an integrated chain. So, we focus not only on the production aspect, but also on marketing, political policy, and consumer awareness.

As well as continuing to work towards becoming a learning organisation, we are also busy innovating program strategies

Through this intervention across the chain, we work to achieve our goal of a better negotiating position for farmers.

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Summary

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The past three years, 2008 – 2010, have been years of change for VECO Indonesia, both in terms of organisational structure, and the programs and strategies for achieving its goal of a better negotiating position for farmers. 2010 marked the end of the internal changes related to the structure of the organisation and its functions, which included establishing and staffing new field antenna.

program partner side, we have shifted focus from NGOs to farmer organisations.

At the program level, VECO Indonesia continues with the programs it has run since 2008: Sustainable Agriculture Chain Development, Advocacy, and Consumer Awareness. We also continued to work towards becoming a learning organisation, adopting methods that are continually developing to meet our needs. On the

Throughout 2010, we had to terminate some of the support programs for NGOs due both to a lack of progress and to the switch in our program focus. As a consequence, we added more farmer organisations in program locations such as Sulawesi, East Nusa Tenggara, and Boyolali.

Support for these organisation is provided

through program support, production and business capacity building, marketing collectives, and farmer cooperatives.

The number of farmer families supported in 2010 was 17,289, up around 24% on the total for 2009 of 13,844 farmer families.

This support was given to farmer groups and NGOs in 12 districts in 7 provinces, as well as to other stakeholders, including commercial enterprises and government.

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Jakarta To support the second objective, Advocacy, in 2009, we opened a field antenna in Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia. Though the antenna in Jakarta, VECO Indonesia works with three NGOs – Aliansi Petani Indonesia (API), Koalisi Rakyat untuk Kedaulatan Pangan (KRKP), and Perhimpunan Indonesia Berseru (PIB).

Through API, a national farmer organisation, VECO Indonesia directly supported around 8,500 farmer families, as of the end of 2010. API works to enable farmers to be more involved in agriculture policy making, particularly price policy. Its strategies are influencing policy making and content based on strong research, and

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raising public awareness through media work. API and its members also mobilise public support for small scale rice producers and build alliances with individuals and civil society organisations to ensure that that these three strategies can work effectively.

To communicate its advocacy messages, API lobbies members of national parliament, particularly from the Partai Kebangkitan Bangsa (PKB) faction , and others such as the ministries of finance, agriculture and trade. Another strategy is discussions with mess media on agriculture policy, particularly rice price policy and increases in the retail price of fertiliser.

In Jakarta, VECO Indonesia also works with KRKP on the issue of food sovereignty.

Although based in Bogor, KRKP performs food policy advocacy not only on a national scale but also in three regions – Mamasa, Central Sulawesi; East Flores, East Nusa Tenggara; and Boyolali, Central Java.

VECO Indonesia also supports PIB to campaign healthy food through the popular media Respect magazine. This media provides alternative information about healthy food in particular, and about responsible lifestyles in general.

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Jawa In these regions, VECO Indonesia supports local partners, including the NGOs Lembaga Sosial Kemasyarakatan dan Bina Bakat (LKSBB) and Konsorsium Solo Raya (KSR), and farmer organizations such as Asosiasi Petani Padi Organik Boyolali (Appoli). With LSKBB and Appoli, in 2010 VECO Indonesia supported 2,863 farmer families as direct targets of the organic rice chain program.

With KSR, VECO Indonesia campaigned healthy foods to consumers.

Throughout 2010, VECO Indonesia facilitated organizational strengthening of Appoli, particularly in product quality control through the internal control system (ICS). VECO Indonesia also facilitated multi-stakeholder meetings to support the Boyolali organic rice chain, in particular assistance with capital, marketing and technical support, through commercial enterprises, financial institutions and government agencies.

This support has motivated Boyolali farmers to aggressively develop ecological, environmental-friendly agriculture systems, including adopting the system of rice intensification (SRI), and diversifying food crops to include commodities such as corn, cassava and tubers. The Boyolali District Government supports these initiatives through policy, capital assistance to farmer groups, technical assistance in production of organic fertilizer and seed, and outreach workers. The synergy between VECO Indonesia and the Boyolali government has promoted the use of sustainable and ecofriendly agricultural resources.

food campaign activities, among others by organizing consumer groups, socializing healthy foods in schools, setting up organic food kiosks in several locations, and developing campaign media. As a result, by the end of 2010, there were 17 consumer groups in Solo and 3 in Boyolali, with a total membership of around 600 people. There were also 18 organic food kiosks in these two towns.

In Solo, VECO Indonesia also works with KSR, which consists of LSKBB, Jaringan Kerja Pertanian Organik (Jaker PO), and Gita Pertiwi. Throughout 2010, KSR carried out healthy

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Bali Continuing the support give in previous years through the Bali Organic Association, in 2010 VECO Indonesia also supported partner in Bali, Konsorsium Penyadaran Konsumen Bali. This consortium consists of BOA, Pusat Pendidikan Lingkungan Hidup (PPLH) Bali, and Indonesian Development of Education and Permaculture (IDEP). This program reaches around 388 farmers and 705 consumers in Bali.

Throughout 2010, the Bali Consortium conducted health food campaigns through organized groups. The strategies used include developing organic food kiosks, holding routine monthly meetings between consumers, distributors and producers on a variety of themes, developing and distributing information on healthy food, and strengthening producer farmers to enable them to supply healthy food products. The Bali Consortium also runs an

Organic Go to School program at Panjer 4 state primary school in Denpasar, and organizes healthy food expos where consumers can try healthy foods for themselves.

The outcomes of these programs are Healthy Food Consumer Groups (KKPS) which will drive the consumer movement in Bali and introduce healthy food as a local content subject at Panjer 4 state primary school, Denpasar. Having organic food kiosks in Bali has increased the number of farmers selling healthy rice and vegetables, from 150 to 388.

Healthy Food Healthy Living (HFHL) – which was rolled out in 2010. Through this program in partnership with Zuiddag Belgium, VECO Indonesia encourages young people to care about healthy food. As well as through discussions at the monthly VECO Breakfast Club meetings, the campaign is also conducted through various media on campuses and in schools in Bali.

Everything is done by the young people themselves.

Bali is also the location of a new VECO Indonesia program –

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Sulawesi 2010 was the first year of VECO Indonesia support for cocoa farmers in Polewali Mandar (Polman), West Sulawesi. The support is provided through two partners – famer cooperative centre Amanah and Wahana Sosial Pertanian Terpandang (Wasiat). These two organizations work with around 1,500 farmers in five subdistricts of Polman – Tubbi Taramanu (Tutar), Luyo, Tapango, Mapilli, and Anreapi. The cocoa gardens in Polman cover an area of around 59,000 hectares, out of a total of 165,000 hectares in the whole of West Sulawesi. The gardens of the farmers in the area supported by Amanah and Wasiat cover a total area of 27,433 hectares.

VECO Indonesia support take the form of technical assistance, facilitation and interaction. Technical assistance is provided on production processes such as

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grafting and pruning. Interaction is built to strengthen solidarity between farmers in this area, among others through routine farmer group meetings. Facilitation takes the form of supporting farmers to prepare proposals and plan activities. VECO Indonesia also facilitates study visits by farmers and partner NGOs to other organisations that have been successful in the cocoa chain, and to cooperatives.

The outcome of this support has been a growth in farmer groups and farmer cooperatives, at both the village and subdistrict levels. In December 2010, Amanah declared itself a farmer cooperative centre to support the credit union and multi-business cooperative enterprises. One impact of the cooperative is that it is easier for farmers to access finance for their farming enterprises and for their household needs. Farmers who had

previously had to rely on middlemen, are now more empowered through their collectively owned cooperatives. As of the end of last year, Amanah was managing funds of around IDR 600 million from farmer members.

In Sulawesi, VECO Indonesia also supports partners, NGOs and farmer groups in Mamasa District, West Sulawesi, and Tana Toraja District, South Sulawesi. These partners are Asosiasi Petani Kopi Toraja (APKT), Yayasan Jaya Lestari Desa (Jalesa), Yayasan Duta Pelayanan Masyarakat (YDPM) Mamasa, and Yayasan Komunitas Indonesia (Yakomi) Mamasa, for the coffee and vegetable chains. Through support from VECO Indonesia and its partners, the farmers are working to increase coffee production and their standard of living.

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Nusa Tenggara Timur 1 As of 2010, VECO Indonesia worked in four districts in East Nusa Tenggara (NTT1) – West Manggarai, Manggarai, Ngada and Nagekeo – all in the west of the island of Flores. Here, VECO Indonesia supports local partners, farmer organisations and NGOs, such as Yayasan Komodo Indonesia Lestari (Yakines) and Asosiasi Petani Padi Organik Lembor (Appel) in West Manggarai, Komunitas Cinta Indonesia (KCI) and Delegasi Sosiol (Delsos) in Manggarai, Persatuan Watuata (Permata) and Lembaga Advokasi dan Pendampingan Masyarakat (Lapmas) in Ngada, and Asosiasi Petani Padi Organik Mbay (ATOM) and Yayasan Mitra Tani Mandiri (YMTM) in Nagekeo.

Coffee is a major commodity that is supported because coffee farmers in Flores face the challenge of low production volumes and poor coffee quality as a result

of the farmers’ lack of capacity and poor negotiating position. Through its partners, VECO Indonesia works to improve coffee quality through training in post-harvest management, coffee quality standards, analysis of the coffee business in a variety of product types, packaging and labelling.

Other support includes facilitating farmers in development of collective marketing associations. VECO Indonesia also supports field school programs for coffee products in this area.

One of the outcomes of this support has been the establishment of a new marketing system through farmer associations.

Because this shortens the chain, the farmers get premium prices and sell larger volumes, and the number of farmers involved is growing. One Arabica coffee farmer processing unit gets IDR 6,000 per

litre from PT Indokom, compared with a market price of around IDR 5,500 per litre.

Another commodity in NTT 1 is organic rice, in Mbay, Nagekeo and Lembor in West Manggarai. Throughout 2010, two local farmer organisations – ATOM and Appel – continued with the organic farming practices that they have been employing in previous years. As well as increasing production from 3-4 tons per hectare to 8-9 tons per hectare, the farmers are keen to get organised so they can sell their products directly to buyers, cutting out the middlemen. Though their groups, farmers in these two locations have been able to improve their welfare.

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Nusa Tenggara Timur 2 Throughout 2010, VECO Indonesia supported NGO partners and farmer groups in three districts in East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) 2 – Sikka, East Flores and North Central Timor. This support was given to Jaringan Tani Wulang Gitang (Jantan), Asosiasi Petani Kakao Nangapenda (Sikap), Ayu Tani, Asosiasi Petani Bituna, Yayasan Mitra Tani Mandiri (YMTM) TTU, and Yayasan An Feot Ana (YAFA) Kefamenanu.

Three commodities supported in NTT2 are cocoa, cashew and peanuts. In East Flores, in 2010, VECO Indonesia directly supported around 2,500 cocoa farmer families. VECO Indonesia also facilitated cocoa farmers to be able to sell their products direct toe PT Mars Symbo Science Indonesia. Since joining up, farmer members of Jantan and Sikap have seen their income from the sale of cocoa increase 8 percent. They get better prices because the quality of their cocoa meets PT Mars standards. Production of cocoa beans has also risen since the

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farmers adopted the system of regular harvesting, fertilising, pruning and sanitation introduced to them through VECO Indonesia field schools.

This increase in income has also improved the negotiating position of farmer families.

As an example, they have been able to negotiate with government for a cocoa processing unit. Sikap farmer members, for example, have secured land use rights for development of cocoa processing unit in Nangapenda District. And in East Flores, through Jantan, for the 2010 harvest season farmer families managed to negotiate prices of between IDR 10,000 and 12,000 per kilogram of dry beans with local traders.

In North Central Timor, 2,264 farmer families

are members of 147 farmer groups. All these farmer groups are members of 14 farmer group associations and have formed Asosiasi Petani Bituna, which covers 18 villages in this centre of peanut production. Through this association, the farmers are not only released from the grip of middlemen, but also get fairer prices, up from IDR 3,000 per kilogram in the past to IDR 10,000 today. Coinciding with this price increase has been growth in production, from around 30 sacks per hectare to 100.

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Organisasi Belajar

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VECO Indonesia continues to be committed to becoming a learning organisation.

Several initiatives have been launched towards achieving this goal. After starting to use online media in 2009, in 2010, VECO Indonesia continued to make active use of this media, including websites, intranet, and social networking, as media for sharing information among staff and with others.

The online media complement the printed media that VECO Indonesia produces, which include the Annual Report, LONTAR newsletter, and other publications.

2010 also marked the departure of SALAM magazine from VECO Indonesia. SALAM is an quarterly agriculture magazine published

by VECO Indonesia in collaboration with ILEIA Netherlands since 1997. Beginning early 2010, publication of SALAM was taken over by another NGO, Aliansi Organis Indonesia (AOI) Bogor, and given the new name PETANI, which is published every four months.

This year, VECO Indonesia and its partners also published books as learning media.

These included the books Komunikasi untuk Inovasi Pedesaan (Communication for Rural Innovation) (Kanisius, VECO Indonesia, and KRKP), Mengubah Cagar Alam Watuata (Changing Watuata Nature Reserve) (VECO Indonesia and Australian Indonesia Partnership); the findings of KRKP research

Kapasitas Tunda Jual Petani Padi (The Capacity of Rice Farmers to Delay Selling), Inovasi Pemerintah Daerah dalam Pembiayaan Pertanian (Local Government Innovations in Agriculture Financing), and Kebijakan Harga Beras di Indonesia (Rice Policy in Indonesia); as well as other books.

VECO Indonesia also continued with several new activities to share information. For example, via the VECO Breakfast Club, a forum where farmers can discuss healthy food with consumers. The VECO Breakfast Club three times in 2010, and majority of participants were young people. This initiative is also part of the Healthy Food Healthy Living (HFHL) program. Another learning activity in 2010 was the value chain development workshop with Horticultural Partnership Support Program (HPSP), VECO Indonesia, and Cordaid. To continue learning, VECO Indonesia staff also participated in internal, regional, national and international workshops

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Source of VECO Indonesia Budget's 2010 Donor

Source of Budget IDR

Euro

Percentage

DGOS

8,306,981,329

676,671

56%

NOVIB

2,183,159,990

185,439

15%

ILEIA

397,521,644

31,053

2%

MISEREOR

1,638,348,597

141,619

12%

CORDAID

2,132,477,434

180,812

15%

14,658,488,994

1,215,594

100%

TOTAL

Allocation of VECO Indonesia's Budget 2010 Target

Percentage

IDR

Euro

Local Partners

8,391,349,802

695,875

57%

VECO Indonesia

6,267,139,192

519,719

43%

14,658,488,994

1,215,594

100%

TOTAL 22

Allocation of Budget

Source of VECO Indonesia Budget's 2010 2% ILEIA

Finance

15% NOVIB

12% Misereor

56% DGOS

15% Cordaid

Allocation of VECO Indonesia's Budget 2010

To run the programs in 2010, VECO Indonesia received funding support from five donors – DGOS, NOVIB, ILEIA, Misereor and Cordaid. The largest contribution, 56 percent, came from the Belgian Government through DGOS. Novib contributed 15 percent, Misereor 12 percent, Cordaid 15 percent, and ILEIA 2 percent. The total budget in 2010 was ₏ 1,215,594 or IDR 14,658,488,994.

This budget was used, among others, to fund partner programs and VECO Indonesia program operations. Fifty-seven percent, or IDR 8,391,349,802, was for local partners and 43 percent, IDR 6,267,139,192, was managed by VECO Indonesia.

57% Local Partners

43% Veco Indonesia 23

VECO Indonesia Jl. Kerta Dalem No. 7, Sidakarya Denpasar, Bali 80224, Indonesia Telp. +62 361 7808264, 727378 Fax. +62 361 723217 Email. admin@veco-indonesia.net Website: www.vecoindonesia.org

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