Institutional Merger of Farmer Groups in the Enhancement Efforts of Independence of Farmer Groups in Southeast Sulawesi, Indonesia (Case Study on Citrus Farming)

The agricultural sector was one of the priorities during the New Order era in Indonesia under Soeharto's leadership. The formation of farmer groups was carried out extensively in order to achieve self-sufficiency in food, but since the fall of the New Order, many farmer groups have not functioned, especially those that relied on government assistance alone. The government in the current reform era in Indonesia is trying to merge farmer groups into new institutions which are named the alliance of farmers group (Gapoktan). This research aims to understand the benefit of merging farmer groups. Field research was conducted in 4 villages of South Konawe Regency, Southeast Sulawesi Province where there was a merger of farmer groups. The results of the study show that the incorporation of farmer groups has had a positive impact their reactivation. The farmer group develops to become a place of learning, discussion, and exchange of information between fellow members. Actually, farmer groups who are members of Gapoktan no longer discuss only the problem of increasing production, but the functions of farmer groups have developed into as marketing institutions, facilities for distribution as well as savings and loan cooperatives. The combination of farmer groups also resulted in government extension workers no need visiting each farmer group as before, because the spread of innovation is being continued by farmer group representatives who themselves disseminate knowledge and skills obtained from training held by government agencies to other farmer group members. The process of training farmers to train other farmers has improved the farmers' competency. The merger of farmer groups has also fostered the trust of partner institutions such as buyers and banking institutions.