Collaborative Model to Increase Empowerment of Dryland Farmer (Case Study West Halmahera District, North Maluku Province)

Abstract

Agricultural development policy focused on irrigated paddy fields (which are found mostly on Java Island), has abandoned the development of dryland agriculture, particularly the empowerment of dryland farmers. The study aimed to describe characteristics of dryland farmers and their access to environmental resources, therefore developing a collaborative model to increase dry lands farmer empowerment. The study was designed as a quantitative method and used descriptive explanatory. Data collection was carried out by survey methods and the analysis technique used descriptive statistics. The results of the study showed that the characteristics of dryland farmers have productive age, having low education, but have long experience in farming is more than 14 years, also have a large area of land and an average income of farmer more than the average national and the number of family members is more than four. Farmers’ access to environmental resources is a low category, namely access to production inputs and agricultural equipment, capital supporting and financial facilities, marketing, infrastructure, and transportation, as well as the availability of agricultural information and innovation sources. A collaborative empowering model was proposed to increase farmer empowerment. The collaboration model involved multi-stakeholders.