PEMBERDAYAAN MASYARAKAT PETANI MELALUI GABUNGAN KELOMPOK TANI (GAPOKTAN) SEBAGAI UPAYAPENINGKATAN KESEJAHTERAAN PETANI DI DESA KETAWANG KECAMATAN PURWOASRI KABUPATEN KEDIRI

Agricultural empowerment is an innovation that is used to advance agriculture in Indonesia. In the empowerment process, it can be done through various institutions, one of which is Gapoktan as an institution formed by the government in the Minister of Agriculture Regulation Number: 273 of 2007. The Tawang Jaya Mulya Abadi Gapoktan located in Ketawang Village, Purwoasri District, Kediri Regency, does an empowerment for farmers, This is done because the majority of people work as farmers. In addition, the need for empowerment is carried out because the agricultural sector is increasingly marginalized, thereby risking the welfare of farmers. This research was conducted using a descriptive qualitative method, where the data sources came from the results of interviews, observations and documentation. In the research conducted, it was found that the empowerment carried out by Gapoktan has developed, although there are some things that are still in the process. Empowerment is carried out in the form of programs, one of which is organic rice which was formed in 2015. The program went quite smoothly by bringing about a change in 14 farmers with a total area of 7.56 hectares to plant organic rice, although the scale of achievement is still far away because the total members are 185 farmers. The inhibition of these factors is due to poor communication problems in carrying out the socialization process and certain actors such as middlemen who buy rice before harvesting. It doesn't just stop there, the role of the government is felt to be lacking so that Gapoktan is not able to do optimally in empowering. The need for sustainable empowerment is because the agricultural sector is the main livelihood of the people of Ketawang Village so they are required to carry out empowerment optimally to be able to improve the welfare of farmers there