ABOUT PROGRAM

The Let’s be Young Farmers program aims to facilitate marginalized young groups (women and men) in rural areas in an effort to gain access to agricultural resources and equip them with knowledge and skills so they can make agriculture a sustainable source of livelihood. worthy. This effort is expected to be achieved through three main activities with specific objectives as follows;

1. Organizing rural youth to gain access to agricultural land owned by the village government (eg prosperity land and village treasury land). The specific aim of this activity is to facilitate the availability of land for young people as a fundamental resource for agriculture.
2. Facilitate young people to learn various innovative methods in agriculture, which include sustainable farming practices, crop processing, and marketing of agricultural products. These activities aim to make agricultural activities more attractive to young people, because they provide sustainable benefits both for improving livelihoods and for environmental sustainability.Increase the collective action capacity of young people in rural areas.
3. This activity aims to strengthen the political participation of young people in the decision-making process in the village.

WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT?

It is widely perceived that young people are not interested in agriculture. Although the disinterest of young people is found in various research results, our research has found indications that there are also young people who are interested in agriculture. However, these young people face various challenges in realizing their desire to become involved in agriculture. These challenges include;

1. Barriers to access to agricultural land;
2. Lack of knowledge to develop more innovative and productive agriculture, which includes farming methods, crop processing, and product marketing;
3. Lack of access to village development decision-making processes that can accommodate their aspirations, for example in allocating village funds and access to agricultural land for young people.

In a broader context, these three issues also indicate the marginalization of young people in development activities starting from the rural level, even at the national level.

APPROACH

In carrying out this program, we are collaborating with the 1000garden Community in Bandung and Karang Taruna Mandala Cipta in Kulon Progo as companion partners. 1000Kebun Community has worked in various farming businesses with innovative methods and has developed online and offline markets to provide opportunities for farmers and small entrepreneurs to sell their products to a wider market. Meanwhile, Karang Taruna Mandala Cipta, has worked on various initiatives in an effort to facilitate young people in Dukuh Ngentak, Banjar Arum Village to gain access to village-owned agricultural land.

We use an approach that combines, modifies, and contextualizes the two good practices of the two youth groups, to then produce contextualized innovations in the two rural youth groups in Sukabumi and Kebumen who are program implementing partners. We use the Participatory Action Research (PAR) method in the process of exploring good experiences with partner partners, in the process of contextualizing the innovation activities that will be carried out in each target group, and in the activity evaluation process. This approach allows participants to be actively involved and voice their aspirations at all stages of the program. We also facilitate the process of learning and knowledge transfer between groups of young people both involved in the program, so that they can learn from each other about how to develop innovative agriculture and strengthen youth organizations in rural areas.

In line with the implementation of innovative activities with youth group partners, AKATIGA conducts studies and documents all activity processes using qualitative research methods. On an ongoing basis, we also disseminate learning from the process of implementing activities through a number of media channels, both offline and online, so that the learning outcomes can access and inspire a wider group of young people. At the end of the program, we hope that this program will provide the widest possible benefits for the partners involved and the wider group of young people.