POPULAR REPORT 2011 1
Foreword Content
2. Content 2. Foreword 4. About VECO Indonesia 6. Summary 8. Jakarta 10. Java 12. Bali
14. 16. 18. 20. 22.
Sulawesi East Nusa Tenggara 1 East Nusa Tenggara 2 Learning Organisation Finance
In 2011 Indonesia has experienced continued strong growth of its economy but of the 47 percent of the population that lives in rural areas (mostly farmers) around 60 percent still remains poor. There is an enormous task for (local) governments, civil society, development institutions and other stakeholders to support this large group getting out of poverty. Interestingly, the Private Sector is now becoming more directly involved in supporting farmers to improve production and develop more transparent business relationships with them. Through a wellstrategized collaboration of civil society with the private sector there is a good potential to improve livelihoods for a large number of family farmers. Since 2008 VECO Indonesia has focused a large part of its programme on
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strengthening business Farmer Organizations through training, facilitation and mentorship. Each Partner Farmer Organization develops its own business plan and a capacity development plan for which funding is provided by VECO to seek external support from NGOs, consultants, government and other development organizations. VECO also facilitates Farmer Organizations to build direct partnerships with the private sector, local governments and consumers. The purpose of all this is to enable Farmer Organizations to take its development in their own hands and become strong players in agriculture value chains. During 2011 support was provided to several Farmer Organizations for Internal Control System (ICS) implementation in several locations were VECO works (Java,
Sulawesi and Flores) for Cocoa, Rice and Coffee. In West Sulawesi (Cocoa) and Central Java (Rice) this led to respectively UTZ and Organic certification resulting in a significantly higher price for these products paid to the farmers. The implementation of ICS in combination with technical production and post-harvesting training for farmers has shown to improve product quality and open access to new market channels. On the other hand VECO also uses its resources to mobilize consumers to promote sustainable agriculture products (healthy food) through the Healthy Food Healthy Living programme (targeting youngsters) and Consumer Consortia in Java and Bali. This directly leads to an increased purchase of healthy agriculture products through outlets and larger
retailers in the intervention areas. Last but not least we continue to develop our advocacy programme both at the national level and provincial level (East Nusa Tenggara Province). For more details please continue reading in this annual report. I hope you enjoy this publication and please let us know what you think of our work. Rogier Eijkens Regional Representative VECO Indonesia
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About VECO Indonesia
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Starting out with a humanitarian project in Flores, East Nusa Tenggara (NTT), VECO Indonesia now focuses on sustainable agriculture programs. Its work areas have expanded as well. Today, VECO Indonesia works in five program areas: Jakarta, Java and Bali, NTT 1, NTT 2, and Sulawesi. All the program areas are coordinated from the office in Denpasar, Bali. In these five program areas, VECO Indonesia works towards achieving its vision of a better deal for farmers. There are four main goals to achieving this vision. First, improving the socio-economic lives of family farmers, both men and women,
in rural areas. Second, strengthening the position of farmers and farmer organisations to be able to influence policies related to sustainable agriculture chain development at the local and national level. Third, change the behaviour of consumers, including young people, to purchase
sustainable agriculture products (healthy foods). Fourth, developing management of organisations to become learning organisations that support and strengthen program development in Indonesia. To achieve this vision, VECO Indonesia works with farmers, farmer organisations, NGOs, private companies, and government, at the local, national and international level. Internationally, VECO Indonesia is a part of Vredeseilanden, a donor agency based in Belgium that has networks in West Africa, East Africa, South America, Central America, and Southeast Asia. []
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Summary Throughout 2011, VECO Indonesia became increasingly focused on strengthening the capacity of farmers through farmer organisations, with support from partner NGOs. This shift in focus is a part of the effort to make farmers more self-reliant and less dependent on the partner NGOs that have been supporting them. On the other hand, direct support for farmers, especially through farmer organisations, is a part of the scenario for making farmers more professional, not only in terms of production but also in the areas of marketing and business.
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To this end, during 2011, VECO Indonesia also ran farmer capacity building programs that involved training, field schools, and peer visits as part of the learning process. This program, like others that have been run since 2008, contributed to all four of VECO Indonesia’s program goals. In 2011, programs and activities focused on four commodities – cocoa, rice, coffee, and peanuts – in particular on improving production quality and volumes. We also provided more intensive support for partner farmers in the area of internal control systems (ICS). The aim is to improve
commodity quality and obtain certification. Multi-stakeholder dialogues were also held between partners and executive and legislative bodies to discuss food sovereignty and rice policy advocacy. As of the end of 2011, VECO Indonesia was working with 32 organisations, including farmer organisations, NGOs, and private companies. In 2011, 10,733 family farmers benefited directly through farmer organisations, and the 14,863 farmers indirectly benefited from rice policy advocacy, along with 574 organic consumers. []
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Jakarta In 2011, VECO Indonesia teamed up with a new partner in Jakarta for the consumer awareness program. This organisation, Yayasan Lembaga Konsumen Indonesia (YLKI), which is concerned with consumer protection, joins the other three partners: Koalisi Rakyat untuk Kedaulatan Pangan (KRKP), Aliansi Petani Indonesia (API), and Perhimpunan Indonesia Berseru (PIB). YLKI and PIB work for the consumer awareness program, and KRKP and API for advocacy. One success story in 2011 was the advocacy of KRKP and networks in Aliansi LSM untuk Kedaulatan Pangan (NGO Alliance for Food Sovereignty) in support of the Desa Mandiri Pangan Menuju Desa Sejahtera (DMPDS) program. This program is run with the government of East Nusa
Tenggara province in three districts: East Sumba, North Central Timor, and East Flores. As well as VECO Indonesia and KRKP, other networks in this alliance include Oxfam, Bina Desa, PIB, Kehati, and Swisscontact. Throughout 2011, advocacy for food sovereignty made important achievements. First, growing recognition of KRKP’s role in supporting the DMPDS secretariats. The capacity of the East West Sumba and North Central Timor DMPDS secretariats has improved in terms of promotion and mobilising support from various quarters. Evidence of this is the additional funding, as well as goods and services, to the secretariats. With the presence of various local government agencies and community organisations,
the district secretariats are also starting to be able to implement Village Development Plans. On the ground, the capacity of farmer groups to manage their assets is also improving. One example is farmers in Mbatakapidu village, East Sumba. Within 3-6 months of funds being disbursed, group members were able to repay assets of IDR 17,370,000, comprising IDR 13,550,000 in loan principle and IDR 3,820,000 in loan interest. Women farmers in this village have also begun to gather funds from the proceeds of economic activities, such as weaving, as savings for their children’s education. These savings can be withdrawn only when the child completes senior secondary school.
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Java In this work area, VECO Indonesia runs two programs: Sustainable Rice Chain Development with Lembaga Studi Kemasyarakatan dan Bina Bakat (LSKBB) and Asosiasi Petani Padi Organik Boyolali (APPOLI), and Consumer Awareness with the Healthy Food Healthy Living (HFHL) team and Konsorsium Solo Raya (KSR), a consortium of LSKBB, Jaringan Kerja Pertani Organik (Jaker PO) and Gita Pertiwi. One success story from this area in 2011 was APPOLI’s securing organic certification from Biocert, a national organic certification agency, for their rice
production in October 2011. This certification is for 77.17 hectares of farmland, including 29.2 hectares owned by Pangudi Boga farmer group, 33.54 hectares owned by Pangudi Raharjo farmer group, and 13.71 hectares owned by Budi Rahayu farmer group. The area is managed by a total of 270 farmers. Having organic product certification helps farmers to market their agricultural commodities. APPOLI now sells its rice to fast food outlet KFC, rice exporter Agro Bloom, and Bina Bakat, a cooperative managed by LSKBB. APPOLI also sells organic rice to consumers through outlets
managed by the organic product consumer community in this city. The success of Solo and Boyolali is the result of collaboration from production to consumption that involves specific partners at each stage. Contributing to the success of the programs in Boyolali and Solo in 2011 were government policies in this area. The Boyolali district head, for example, is committed to making his area the top rice producer in Central Java and even to export the rice it produces. This ambition is supported by various policies that promote the development of organic farming.
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Bali VECO Indonesia supports Konsorsium Penyadaran Konsumen Bali, a consortium comprising the Bali Organic Association (BOA), Pusat Pendidikan Lingkungan Hidup (PPLH), and Indonesian Education for Permaculture (IDEP). The focus of this program is consumer awareness, which is carried out in Denpasar and Gianyar. The main program target groups are housewives, civil servants and young people. VECO Indonesia also runs a Healthy Food Healthy Living (HFHL) program in Bali, which targets mainly young people, both school pupils and students, in urban areas. During 2011, Konsorsium Bali carried out various exhibitions and radio and
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television campaigns. Partners in Bali also have routine discussions with Healthy Food Consumer Groups, comprising producers, consumers and traders as a tool of the healthy food campaign. The healthy food campaign also targets primary school children in Denpasar. To help consumers access healthy food, partners in Bali also manage organic outlets in Sanur. Another healthy food campaign carried out through the HFHL program uses young people as its spearhead. School pupils and students actively campaign on university campuses and in schools through various media, such as radio and posters. HFHL program partners with the Denpasar municipal government and the Bali Tourism
School campaign to government and the hotel industry about healthy food. Through these intensive campaigns, there were several changes in 2011, including raised awareness among young people about healthy food, increased capacity of the young people in the HFHL core team to share information and influence other young people, and increased capacity in advocacy. At the consumer level, changes are starting too; for example consumers are actively seeking for healthy food.
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Sulawesi In this area, VECO Indonesia works with four organisations: Asosiasi Petani Kopi Toraja (APKT) and Yayasan Jaya Lestari (Jalesa) in Toraja, South Sulawesi, and Wahana Sukses Pertanian Terpandang (Wasiat) and Koperasi Petani Amanah in Polewali Mandar, West Sulawesi. The commodities supported here are coffee and cocoa. One important achievement in 2011 was Amanah’s sale of 500 tons of dry cocoa, despite a global decline in production. The previous year, Amanah produced 380 tons of dry cocoa. This success came with Amanah selling sustainable cocoa certified
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by UTZ, a certification agency in the Netherlands. Amanah and Wasiat are also playing an increasingly active role in cocoa marketing networks with other stakeholders, including Armajaro, IFC, and universities. This increase in cocoa production has also resulted in several other changes. For example, an increase in the farmers’ standard of living because they receive a premium of IDR 500 per kg for traceable
cocoa. Through collective marketing, the farmers are now able to negotiate prices with buyers, choose their trading partners, and limit their interaction with middlemen. Throughout 2011, capacity building support for Amanah members continued, with financial management training, training in the recycling of cocoa garden waste, ICS training, and others. These training courses not only increase knowledge and skills, but also the number of members. In 2011, the number of Amanah members increased from 636 to around 1,675 farmers.
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East Nusa Tenggara 1 Coffee is one of the main commodities of VECO Indonesia partners in the Nusa Tenggara Timur (NTT) 1 program area, including the western part of Flores. Another commodity is healthy rice. With the partners in this area, VECO Indonesia supports chain development of these two commodities through farmer organisations Forum Masyarakat Watuata (Formata) and Komunitas Cinta Indonesia (KCI), and NGOs Lembaga Advokasi dan Penguatan Masyarakat Sipil (Lapmas) and Delsos Ruteng. The coffee value chain supported by VECO Indonesia are in Manggarai and Ngada. These districts produce 90 percent of the 4,000 tons of Arabica and 5,000 tons of
Robusta coffee that is produced in Flores. The focus of this support is increasing production and collective marketing. A total of 2,152 farmers, including 1,705 men and 447 women, are the beneficiaries of this VECO Indonesia support for coffee value chain in NTT 1. Throughout 2011, support was mainly provided through field schools for farmers. One important change is the improved mindset and increased capacity of the farmers in coffee cultivation. Farmer members of Permata in Bajawa are becoming more skilled at cultivating and rehabilitating the coffee in their gardens after taking part in field schools. Farmers are also able to control quality through
post-harvest processing of their coffee. Several farmers have also started to share the results of the field schools with other farmers. As well as changes at the production level, there have also been changes in the patterns of interaction between farmers, who now work together and help each other out during the production phase and do collective marketing. Members of farmer organisations who are involved in collective marketing are becoming more confident about and used to negotiating with buyers. However, coffee farmers in this area still face the challenge of fermentating yields resulting from climate change.
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East Nusa Tenggara 2 The VECO Indonesia program in NTT 2 covers five districts: Ende, East Flores, South Central Timor (TTS), North Central Timor (TTU) and Belu. The main programs are sustainable agriculture chain development for cocoa and peanuts. VECO Indonesia partners in this area include Yayasan Ayu Tani (YAT), Asosiasi Petani Kakao Nangapenda (Sikap) Ende, Asosiasi Petani Bituna, Jaringan Petani Wulang Gitang (Jantan), Yayasan An Feot Afa (YAFA), and Yayasan Mitra Tani Mandiri (YMTM) TTU. In 2011, changes at the production level included the farmers doing more regular pruning, fertilising, harvesting and sanitation. This was the result of intense
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farmer field school training during the year. At the post-harvest management level, Sikap has started managing a production processing unit, while Jantan is still doing this at the farmer level. The post-harvest processing carried out by the farmers demonstrates their improved knowledge and skills in processing cocoa beans. The cocoa marketing network in NTT 2 is also expanding. Local traders at the East Flores district level have started to work with Jantan. They give Jantan capital and fees of IDR 200 - 500 per kilogram. SIKAP gives a fee of IDR 1,000 per kilogram to members whose cocoa meets national standards. This network is not
only for collective marketing but also production. For example, Nangapanda subdistrict government has allocated funds to procure top grafting seedlings for Sikap members. Another change in 2011 in this area was in the status of Jantan farmer organisation to a legal, multi-business cooperative. This change in status facilitates Jantan’s cocoa trading business. Farmer members of Sikap and Jantan also started to learn about internal control systems (ICS) for cocoa. They have produced sustainable cocoa standards to be used to control production quality so that members can meet market demand.
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Learning Organisation As well as empowering farmers, farmer organisations and NGOs, VECO Indonesia also continued to work towards becoming a learning organisation. Throughout 2011, two main activities were carried out towards achieving this goals. First, facilitating training, capacity building workshops for farmer organisation staff in the areas of strengthening commodity chains, developing methodologies, participatory monitoring and evaluation, and marketing. Second, organising peer visits for farmer organisations to give them the opportunity to share experiences about technical agricultural innovations for coffee, cocoa, healthy rice, and peanuts, and about business-oriented farmer organisations. Local partner meetings are an effective
forum for analysing program achievements and learning outcomes. The output of these meetings are chain intervention reports, which are a part of the VECO Indonesia documentation and reporting system. In 2011, staff and partners joined NGOs and farmer organisations on a trip to Davao, Philippines, to learn how to develop business-oriented farmer organisations. VECO Indonesia also implements a program as a learning organisation, through activities such as Knowledge CafĂŠ, Homeweek, Badan Belajar Bersama, and the Regional Learning Initiative (RELI). Several new initiatives were also started in 2011, such as staff training in optimising the capacity of producer organisations. One key activity in 2011 was the International
Rice Chain Workshop in Solo, Central Java, in November. This event was attended by all regional VECO offices from West Africa, East Africa, South America, Central America and Southeast Asia. During 2011, VECO Indonesia continued to publish LONTAR as a learning media with information about programs in the field and VECO Indonesia partner success stories; provided internet training and publications for partners; published articles in the mass media through its partners; and provide regular information via www.vecoindonesia.org about VECO Indonesia and partner activities and publications. Through these various media, VECO Indonesia continued to learn and share its knowledge with a wider audience.
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Source of VECO Indonesia's Budget 2011
Finance The program budget managed by VECO Indonesia for 2011 was EUR 1,065,575 or around IDR 12.7 billion. These funds were used, among others, to support sustainable agriculture chain development in 16 districts by 13 NGOs, 3 network organisations and 11 farmer organisations; to cover operating and personnel costs; the cost of training and meetings to support commodity chain strengthening; and for program monitoring and evaluations
Donor
Percentage
DGD
8,262,173,118
691,395
65%
MISEREOR
1,486,791,115
124,418
12%
CORDAID
1,399,827,133
117,140
11%
NOVIB
368,482,396
30,835
3%
ZUIDDAG
550,954,750
46,105
4%
TRDS
215,100,000
18,000
2%
GILLES
239,000,000
20,000
2%
ILEIA
91,787,601
7,681
1%
119,500,000
10,000
1%
12,733,616,113
1,065,575
100%
OMMERSTEIN TOTAL
Allocation of VECO Indonesia's Budget 2011 Target
Allocation of Budget Euro IDR
Percentage
Local Partners
6,303,920,801
527,525
50%
VECO Indonesia
6,429,695,312
538,050
50%
12,733,616,113
1,065,575
100%
TOTAL
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Source of Budget Euro IDR
Source of VECO Indonesia's Budget 2011
■ ■ ■ ■ ■
65% 12% 11% 3% 4%
DGD MISEREOR CORDAID NOVIB ZUIDDAG
■ ■ ■ ■
2% 2% 1% 1%
TRDS GILLES ILEIA OMMERSTEIN
Allocation of VECO Indonesia's Budget 2011
■ ■
50% Local Partners 50% VECO Indonesia
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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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