More Inclusive Village Treasury Land Management
Thursday, 16 January 2020
Held focused discussions on the management of village treasury land (TKD) in six villages in the Kebumen district. This discussion was held in the hall of the Podoluhur Village Office and was attended by the Head of Dispermades-P3A, Head of Section for Revenue, Financial Management and Village Assets of Dispermades P3A, representatives from Bappeda, representatives from the Governance Section of the Regional Secretariat and representatives from Klirong District. In addition, there were also representatives from the village government, BPD, women and youth from the villages of Podoluhur, Kritig, Sidomulyo, Bonoworo, Sinungrejo and Kalibeji.
The event began with a presentation on the findings of an assessment of village treasury land management in the six villages conducted by FORMASI (Civil Society Forum) Kebumen in collaboration with a social research institute, AKATIGA Bandung. This discussion is part of a research series that aims to encourage improvements in TKD management policies that give more priority to the poor, women and young people. Furthermore, opening access to TKD land is one of the efforts to increase employment opportunities for young people in agriculture.
Yusuf Murtiono as the FORMASI presidium conveyed the results of the assessment, namely that TKD including prosperity land in six villages was still being managed according to local village procedures. The management of treasury land in the form of crooked land is relatively uniform, namely it is intended as an incentive for the Village Head, Village Secretary and other village officials. While the average prosperity land is allocated to Village Community Institutions (LKD), BPD, traditional officials, officers, and some are intended for the general public.
As mandated in the Village Law and its derivatives PP 47/2015 (amendment to PP 43/2014), the management of TKD as one of the village assets must be carried out in a transparent manner, based on the right of origin, and must be used for the public interest. At least there are Sidomulyo Village and Kritig Village which have allocated land for village prosperity for the poor and youth (Sidomulyo Village). The rest of the management of prosperity land is still carried out through limited village meetings / does not involve all elements of society, by direct appointment, or the customary distribution is based on generations.
Frans Haidar, Head of P3A Dispermades appreciates this activity and supports the improvement of TKD management policies that prioritize the poor and youth. He said, “The TKD management innovation is carried out as an effort to overcome poverty in the village and is aimed at the welfare of its citizens. Management must go through the Musdes and be transparent so as not to arouse suspicion.
Support for efforts to improve the management of TKD was also conveyed by the Governance Section of the Regional Secretariat and representatives of the Kebumen District Bappeda. According to them, improving TKD management must be supported by the availability of good data through the identification and inventory of all village assets including TKD. Yan Setiawan, Head of Dispermades Village Asset Management Head, said that data collection on village treasury land in Kebumen is still slow. In fact, if you want to manage the land management for the prosperity of the village, you need valid data. He appealed to village officials to immediately implement what they got from village asset data collection training in their respective villages.
Representatives of the youth group from the villages of Kritig and Podoluhur also expressed their opinions. In Podoluhur, so far the management of prosperity land has not involved young groups. In addition, information regarding the amount of prosperity land and its management is still not transparent. Meanwhile Sukirno, Chairman of the Karang Taruna of Kritig Village, regretted that there had been no allocation of prosperity land for youth.
“Karang Taruna should not only be involved in the celebration of August 17th. If there is the right to cultivate prosperity land for Karang Taruna, it can be used to revive the activities of youth organizations and as an additional source of income for them”, explained Sukirno. He also emphasized that it is very important for the young generation (male and female) to be involved in the management of prosperity land as efforts to overcome the crisis of farmer regeneration and open up potential employment opportunities in the agricultural sector for them.
There was encouragement from the government, and the aspirations of the community were taken into consideration for the villages attending this discussion to improve the quality of cash land management that was right on target in their villages. However, village representatives conveyed the various challenges they faced in making changes to the management of the village treasury land. Some of them are related to differences in the area of treasury land in each village, the existence of dependence on village prosperity land lease funds for village operational needs, and a customary-based management system.
Therefore, a district-scale reference regulation is needed as a general guideline in regulating village treasury land management so that it is used fairly, especially for the poor and the younger generation. Regarding the technical management, this will be further deepened through research that is currently underway, but of course it will refer to each village given the different conditions of the local context.
From this meeting it is hoped that there will be an exchange of information so that lessons will emerge from each village regarding the management of village treasury land. In addition, it is hoped that there will be commitment and collaboration of various parties in realizing general guidelines for managing village treasury land that is just for the sake of creating prosperity and mutual benefit.
