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Distributed for National University of Singapore Press

The Paradox of Agrarian Change

Food Security and the Politics of Social Protection in Indonesia

Distributed for National University of Singapore Press

The Paradox of Agrarian Change

Food Security and the Politics of Social Protection in Indonesia

A detailed study of agrarian change, the persistence of food insecurity, and the most significant policy to address poverty in rural Indonesia.
 
Economic growth in the middle-income countries of Southeast Asia over the past few decades has been widely praised for reducing poverty in both absolute and relative terms. Indonesia is a prime example. But while poverty has declined in Indonesia, patterns of food poverty persist across Indonesia. What explains this troubling paradox? How does it relate to Indonesia’s enthusiastic embrace of the “entitlements revolution,” the use of direct cash transfers as a tool for reducing poverty and building social inclusion?
 
This book analyzes the nature and social consequences of economic development and agrarian change processes in rural Indonesia in relation to the scope and effectiveness of Indonesia’s social protection programs. The findings are based on a series of extensive ground-up case studies in Indonesian communities in a variety of eco-agrarian settings that seek to understand the drivers of food insecurity and vulnerability at a household level. The results show that while high-value farming, diversification, and migration may offer a means of economic progress for poor households, opportunities for accumulation are limited. This, the authors show, is due to the way class, gender, and power work in remote local contexts, and the fact that much surplus income is used for enhanced consumption and changing lifestyles. There are few signs of the classical structural transformation of the countryside which has historically been considered the most decisive pathway out of rural poverty. The authors conclude that social assistance is unlikely to counter the persistence of rural poverty, food insecurity, and precarity in the absence of other redistributive strategies that shift the structural drivers of inequality.
 

464 pages | 14 halftones, 37 figures, 32 tables, 10 maps | 6 x 9 | © 2023

Asian Studies: Southeast Asia and Australia

Economics and Business: Economics--Development, Growth, Planning


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Reviews

“The book exquisitely analyses why so many people from rural Indonesia are still vulnerable to nutritional insecurity whilst poverty rates are declining simultaneously. The book is a valuable addition to the existing literature and an interesting read for everyone working in agriculture, agrarian change and food security.”

The Journal of Peasant Studies

“This is one of the strong points of John McCarthy, McWilliam, and Nooteboom's work: sensitivity to the variety of agrarian change pathways. Another strong point can be found in the authors' conclusion, that to solve the agrarian change paradox in Indonesia there is a need to formulate 'other redistributive policy settings and strategies . . . which shift the structural driven of inequality and invest in the productive capacity of people to empower their future'... terima kasih Mas John and the authors for the excellent contribution to the agrarian study in Indonesia.”

Indonesia

“I consider these [village-based] case studies to be the most interesting part of the book, especially those illustrating remote or unusual locations, such as East Sumba (Chapter 6) and the Sama Bajo fishing people of SE Sulawesi (Chapter 10), where the assistance of a strong community culture was especially beneficial….It was good to see so many Indonesian authors and the participation of 6 Indonesian universities, as well as 3 from Australia and 2 from the Netherlands.”

Asia-Pacific Economic Literature

“[This edited volume] is a genuine team effort and an excellent example of the insights that can be gained through sustained research collaboration between Australian and Indonesian researchers…. The book’s strength lies in the diverse experiences of agrarian change. Its centre-piece is therefore the seven case study chapters (part 2 of the book), all of which are well written and engaging and provide insightful analyses of the diverse causes of contemporary rural poverty.”

Bulletin of Indonesian Economic Studies

The Paradox of Agrarian Change highlights the important fact that even in rapidly developing countries such as Indonesia, the rural peasantry tend to be left behind and are overlooked – the result being increased vulnerability and declining food security for them and their families. The solution lies in a greater awareness of the issue to ensure better access to other resources for food security, such as land entitlement and agricultural support services.” 

Development in Practice

“This book is best seen and read as a cohesive standalone volume rather than merely as an edited compilation. This perhaps is the strength of the book. The editors have done an adroit job in enabling the disparate chapters, entailing diverse aspects of agrarian scenarios, into a cogent and coherent package where each chapter is tied to and speaks with one another, which is not always the case in many edited books in the market… [This is] a good read for all interested in agrarian changes in Indonesia specifically, and methodologies utilized in the developmental process, in general.”

Rising Asia Journal

Table of Contents

List of Figures
List of Tables
Acknowledgements
Acronyms and Glossary
Part One: Agrarian Change and Social Protection
1. Understanding Agrarian Change: Scenarios of Agricultural Development, Income Diversification, Food Poverty and Nutritional Insecurity in Indonesia
John F. McCarthy, Gerben Nooteboom and Andrew McWilliam
2. Agrarian Scenarios and Nutritional Security in Indonesia
John F. McCarthy, Gerben Nooteboom and Andrew McWilliam
3. Social Protection and the Challenge of Poverty in Indonesia
Andrew McWilliam, John F. McCarthy, Gerben Nooteboom and Naimah Talib
Part Two: The Analysis and Structure of Rural Poverty
4. Thriving but not Growing: Wealth, Food Insecurity and Precarity in Rural Java
Gerben Nooteboom and Pande Made Kutanegara
5. Progressing Sideways in the Rice Lands: Livelihood Change and Nutritional Insecurity in Aceh
John F. McCarthy, Nulwita Maliati and Shaummil Hadi
6. Agrarian Change, Vulnerability and the Community Economy in Sumba
Jacqueline Vel and Stepanus Makambombu
7. Affluence, Generational Poverty and Food Security in the Oil Palm Landscapes of North Sumatra
Henri Sitorus and John F. McCarthy
8. Poverty, Vulnerability and Social Protection in Upland Java: The “Haves” and the “Have Nots”
Lisa Woodward
9. Between the Sea and a Hard Place: Fisheries Degradation and Livelihood Precarity in a West Bali Coastal Community
Carol Warren
10. Sustaining Livelihoods from the Seas: Sama Bajo Vulnerabilities and Resilience
Andrew McWilliam, Nur Isiyana Wianti and Yani Taufik
Part Three: Social Protection
11. Are Conditional Cash Transfer Policies Implementable? Social Cash Transfers and Emergent Patterns of Entitlement in Rural Aceh
John F. McCarthy, Shaummil Hadi and Nulwita Maliati
12. The Arrival and Implementation of Conditional Cash Transfers in Indonesia
Pande Made Kutanegara, Gerben Nooteboom and Michelle Pols
13. Village Politics, Ritual Deliberation and the Problem of Beneficiary Mistargeting in Central Java
Katiman
14. Conditional Cash Transfers, Global Politics and the Development of Indonesia’s Social Protection Policy
Mulyadi Sumarto
Part Four: Conclusions
15. Agrarian Change and Social Assistance Outcomes
John F. McCarthy, Andrew McWilliam, Gerben Nooteboom, Pande Made Kutanegara, Rudy Purba, Henri Sitorus, Jacqueline Vel, Carol Warren and Lisa Woodward
16. Conclusions and Implications: Paradoxes of Agrarian Change and Social Protection
John F. McCarthy, Andrew McWilliam and Gerben Nooteboom
17. Epilogue: The COVID-19 Pandemic, Changing Agrarian Scenarios and Social Assistance
John F. McCarthy, Andrew McWilliam, Carol Warren, Vania Budianto, Shaummil Hadi, Pande Made Kutanegara, Nulwita Maliati, Stepanus Makambombu, Gerben Nooteboom, Henri Sitorus, Jacqueline Vel, Yunita Winarto and Lisa Woodward
List of Contributors
Index

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