The green revolution and institutional change in Indonesia : the impact of new rice technology on agrarian institutions in Java and Lampung

Abstract

The in rice farming in Indonesia has been a remarkable technological change which has enabled Indonesia to become self-sufficient in rice. Nevertheless, the impact of the new technology on the village-level institutions governing the use of labour and land has been the subject of considerable controversy. A number of models have been advanced to explain the process of institutional change and to predict the impact on different rural classes. However, these models are largely based on observations in the 1970s in Java. This thesis extends the analysis of village-level institutional change in Indonesia in two ways. First, it reassesses the impact of the green revolution in Java through a critical evaluation of earlier studies and in the light of more recent evidence. Second, it reports on a case study of three rice-growing villages in Lampung Province to evaluate the impact of the green revolution in an area outside Java. The case-study villages were chosen to represent differences in production technology and in population pressure. The thesis concludes that single-factor, unidirectional models of institutional change fail to account for the complex nature of the process. It is necessary to examine in detail the characteristics of the village agrarian system, including its resource endowments (land area, land quality, irrigation infrastructure, population, employment opportunities, etc.), technology (crop varieties, cropping patterns and schedules, pest control measures, farm tools and machinery, etc.), cultural factors (cooperative norms, inheritance procedures, etc.) and institutions (rules governing the mobilisation of labour, land tenure rules, farmer groups, etc.). In addition, it is necessary to take into account the environment of the village agrarian system, in particular the role of the state (the provision of incentives, inputs, credit, and markets, and the direct organisation and regulation of farming activities) and the influence of macro-economic conditions (off-farm employment, wages, government revenues, etc.). The thesis demonstrates that a careful examination of the interaction among these various factors permits a coherent explanation of the process of institutional change in Indonesian agriculture, whereas focusing on the role of only one main factor, such as community norms, production technology, population pressure or political goals, provides at best a limited insight into the changes which have taken place. The evidence presented in the thesis shows that village-level institutions do indeed change, largely in response to practical technical and economic considerations as they impact on the day-to-day choice of contractual arrangements at the farm level. At times these changes work against the interests of the poorer classes within the village, but at other times the changes can be beneficial to the poor. A careful monitoring of the overall process of agrarian change is necessary if the impact of new technology on the welfare of the poor is to be assessed.