Target 4 – Approved TBS

Nature-Harmonized Agriculture Improves the Welfare of the Majalengka Farmers Union

The Majalengka Farmers Union (SPM) has a membership base spread across several sub-districts in Majalengka Regency. SPM controls approximately 1.500 hectares of land, managed by 800 families. To date, SPM's agricultural management relies on chemical fertilizers and pesticides, which not only incur high operational costs but also cause soil damage. Furthermore, farmers' dependence on middlemen has led to falling prices and hindered economic prosperity.

The SPM farmers recognized this. Their initiative to address this problem was to form a work team capable of practicing sustainable agricultural management for collective goals. To meet the nutritional needs of their plants, the SPM farmers process local materials, such as leaves, household (organic) waste, dry twigs, and other materials, into organic fertilizer. These organic farming activities are carried out in demonstration plots as examples. Secondly, to reduce dependence on middlemen, they have begun developing membership-based economic institutions, namely cooperatives. For production and sales, they also collaborate with Rice Milling Unit Indonesian Agrarian Barn (RMU LANUSA).

The program has become a new strategy for SPM member farmers to overcome the high production costs of agricultural practices that use chemical fertilizers and pesticides. At the knowledge level, farmers also gained new knowledge that utilizes local materials for organic fertilizer production. In sustainable agriculture, SPM farmers return to farming practices that are in harmony with nature and at a lower cost. Similarly, in cooperative economic practices, farmers have succeeded in establishing membership-based economic practices (cooperatives) whose economic patterns are based on equality, justice, and the welfare of members. This program has implications for the social aspect of 3.914 people. The details include 1.467 men, 1.469 women, and 978 young people.