Strengthening the Independent Farmers Alliance's Economy Through Porang Processing in West Manggarai Regency, NTT 

Wae Sano Village is located in Sano Nggoang District, West Manggarai Regency, East Nusa Tenggara. Most of the residents depend on porang (porang) farming and livestock farming for their livelihoods. The landscape of Wae Sano Village also integrates with the socio-cultural system of the Manggarai Indigenous Community, which is still preserved through the existence of traditional houses, compang (compang), natas (compang), lingko (community huts), and customary leadership structures. Thus, the community's living space not only has economic value but also contains ecological, social, cultural, and spiritual values ​​that serve as the foundation for sustainable community life.

Amidst this potential, the Wae Sano Village community faces challenges regarding plans to develop a geothermal project on productive community land, raising concerns about declining environmental quality, reduced water sources, damaged agricultural land, and disruption to the community's social and cultural systems. On the other hand, farmers also still face the problem of low economic value of agricultural products because most commodities are sold as raw materials at very low prices. This condition has resulted in farmers' welfare not being optimally improved despite the village's abundant natural resources and significant agricultural production potential. Therefore, strengthening the economy based on local agricultural products is a crucial strategy to strengthen community resilience while maintaining the sustainability of community-managed areas.

To address these issues, in 2020, the community formed the Independent Farmers Alliance (ATM) as a forum to advocate for farmers' rights and build community economic independence. To date, ATM has around 40 members and actively advocates for the protection of living spaces from the threat of geothermal exploitation. Furthermore, they have begun developing initiatives to increase the added value of agricultural products, particularly porang. Porang production potential reaches hundreds of tons each harvest season, and nearly every farmer has a porang plantation. Therefore, porang is considered a commodity with the potential to increase community income if processed into products with higher sales value.

To achieve this, they are promoting the development of a porang processing business by building a production facility, purchasing porang shredding and drying machines, and planning training on business management and processing technology. Porang processing has the potential to generate economic value by increasing the selling price from around IDR 6.000 per kg of wet porang to IDR 80.000–100.000 per kg of dried porang.