State led agricultural development and change in Yogyakarta 1973-1996

In the early 1990s, Indonesia was seen as one of the post war success stories. The country was boasting an impressive growth record and had seen the number of poor continuously decline. This picture of Indonesia stood in stark contrast to the situation only 30 years earlier when the economy was in a shambles and starvation was a real threat. At the core of this change in Indonesia lies the transformation process of the economy. In this process we have seen the Indonesian economy becoming increasingly dominated by manufacturing and services. At the same time, the agricultural sector has undergone dramatic changes and while it has decreased in importance to the economy as a whole, it has developed significantly and thereby improved the livelihoods of those still active in farming. The aim of this chapter is to focus on this development process in the agricultural sector. Much has been written on this process in Indonesia from a macro point of view. The focal point here is on the local processes and drivers for change on a local level. The time frame of the study is 1973-1996. The study is based on statistical data form Yogyakarta and also policy documents and interviews with farmers and local civil servants. This gives a good picture of the transformation process and also the driving forces behind it. The findings show that the villages, and the province, chosen for this study mirror the development for Java as a whole. It is interesting to see that the state has played a crucial role, both positively and negatively, in the transformation process. In a sense the state has forcefully modernised the agricultural sector but failed to create a broad base for continued agricultural development and as a consequence the rapid change of the late 1970s is replaced with a much slower development throughout the remainder of the Suharto regime