Coffee Cultivation and Farmer Institutions in Rikit Musara Village,

Permata District, Bener Meriah Regency

Irhas Jaya, R. Hamdani Harahap, Irfan Simatupang and Bengkel Ginting

Master Program of Development Studies, Faculty of Social Science and Political Science,

Universitas Sumatera Utara, Jl. Prof. Dr. A. Sofyan No. 1 Kampus USU, Medan, Indonesia

Keywords: Coffee Cultivation, Institutional, Community Empowerment

Abstract: Coffee cultivation and farmer institutions in Rikit Musara Village, Permata District, Bener Meriah Regency,

cultivation has not been carried out properly, farmers have not fully cultivated coffee plants so that they are

not productive in every managed land, so production results are not always optimal because cultivation is not

carried out from upstream downstream. downstream and ineffective farmer institutions in the community,

lack of knowledge in coffee cultivation and skills of coffee farmers, in farmer institutions farmer

empowerment strategies will change the mindset and improve the quality and productivity of coffee farmers,

attention from the government is very important so that it can move institutions and strengthen empowerment

programs Gayo Arabica coffee farming community. This study aims to analyze and find institutions and

coffee cultivation of Gayo Arabica coffee farmers, institutions that support community empowerment of

coffee farmers and formulate strategies for empowering Gayo Arabica coffee farmers in Rikit Musara Village,

Permata District, Bener Meriah Regency. This study uses a qualitative approach and a descriptive type of

research, with an observation and interview process to examine the cultivation and institutions of Gayo

Arabica coffee farmers in an effort to empower communities through coffee farmers' institutions. The results

of this study are the cultivation and institutionalization of coffee farmers, 3 aspects of limitations, namely the

cultivation of coffee plants is not carried out properly so that not all land is productive, capital and availability

of fertilizers and agricultural tools, institutional development of farming communities so that farmers are not

skilled and professional in coffee cultivation from upstream to downstream. downstream. These three aspects

affect the institutional conditions of the farming community, the strategy of community empowerment

through institutions will prosper the community in farming and be professional in these institutions.

Empowerment of coffee farmers is expected to be a reference and concept in self-awareness and capacity

building in cultivation and institutions, development of productive land and good cultivation and institutions,

provision of capital and availability of fertilizers and agricultural tools, as well as the participation of the

government and stakeholders to farmers.

1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background

Coffee was first discovered in Ethiopia in the 9th

century at that time coffee was discovered by a

shepherd who noticed his shepherd's sheep became

hyperactive after eating small grains that grew around

his grazing place called Kaffa. Then came the term

coffee and since then coffee began to become global,

Arabica coffee began to spread to other areas, initially

Yemeni and Arab residents tried to eat Arabica coffee

beans and felt the additional energy.

The first country as the largest coffee producer is

Brazil in 2001 9 mentioning that Brazil capable of

producing up to 3.702 million tons of coffee. This

number makes Brazil as a supplier of 30-40 percent

of coffee in the world. The second largest coffee

producing country in the world is Vietnam. In 20 19

Vietnam succeeded in producing 1.758 million tons

of coffee and increased to 1.77 million tons in 2020.

The production is expected to increase again in 2021

as the Vietnamese government has implemented land

management, replanting at a higher rate. Colombia is

in third place as the third largest coffee producing

country in the world, reaching 852,000 tons in 2018

326

Jaya, I., Harahap, R., Simatupang, I. and Ginting, B.

Coffee Cultivation and Farmer Institutions in Rikit Musara Village, Permata District, Bener Meriah Regency.

DOI: 10.5220/0011567500003460

In Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Social and Political Development (ICOSOP 2022) - Human Security and Agile Government, pages 326-331

ISBN: 978-989-758-618-7; ISSN: 2975-8300

 2023 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. Under CC license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

which was dominated by Arabica (Angkasa and

Gandha 2019).

Indonesia is listed as the fourth largest coffee

producer in the world, the coffee produced in 2018

reached 612,000 tons, per the problem is the low

coffee production in Indonesia between cultivation

and post-harvest which is still

conventional/traditional so that every post-harvest

season the coffe yields are not effective and efficient.

Gayo coffee is an arabica coffee variety which is one

of the leading commodities originating from the Gayo

highlands, Bener Meriah, Indonesia. He has been

awarded Fair Trade Certified™ from the Fair Trade

International organization on 27 May 2010, Gayo

Coffee received a GI certificate (Geographical

Indication) submitted by the Ministry of Law and

Human Rights of the Republic of Indonesia Then at

the Special Indonesian Coffee Event on October 10

2010 in Bali (Lasmiyati 2015).

Gayo arabica and post-harvest coffee cultivation

in Rikit Musara village and almost all of Bener

Meriah Regency is still not good, there are still many

coffee plants that are old and there is no complete

rejuvenation of coffee as well as guarantee of superior

seeds to farmers, Cultivation is not up to the standard

of world coffee, as is the market for Gayo coffee

production abroad, coffee cultivation by farmers is

still traditional and there are still many farmers who

are not active in cultivating Arabica coffee from

upstream to downstream, starting with superior

nurseries and effective care, then spacing out as well.

very influential and this problem still occurs in all

coffee farmers in Bener Meriah there are still many

farmers who do not use the spacing method such as

the world standard is L 2.5 meters and P 2.5 meters

for varieties Gayo arabica coffee, furthermore this

pruning and fertilization has not been carried out

effectively among coffee farmers so that all these

problems have an impact on the quality and

productivity of coffee.

Institutional farmers already exist, namely farmer

groups under the government of the Agriculture

service, this group exists in every sub-district and in

the village, downstream and ineffective farmer

institutions in the community, lack of knowledge in

coffee cultivation and skills of coffee farmers, in

farmer institutions farmer empowerment strategies

will change the mindset and To improve the quality

and productivity of coffee farmers, attention from the

government is very important so that it can move

institutions and strengthen community empowerment

programs for Gayo Arabica coffee farmers. but the

group does not focus on coffee cultivation they only

propose a problem more to individuals, namely

requests for assistance such as superior seeds,

fertilizer subsidies, so that this can only be enjoyed

by a group but this is also not effective because the

group is a member of the farmer and who gets seed

assistance so that their fertilizer subsidy is still the

same as that of farmers who do not participate in the

group.

1.2 Formulation of the Problem

A. Why do gayo arabica coffee farmers not

cultivate coffee plants with institutions in Rikit

Musara Village, Permata District, Bener Meriah

Regency, Aceh Province?

B. How community empowerment strategy will

increase farmers' knowledge and improve coffee

quality and productivity in Rikit Musara

Village, Permata District, Bener Meriah

Regency?

1.3 Research Purposes

A. Find and analyze – Gayo Arabica Coffee

Farmers Do Not Cultivate Coffee Plants with an

Institutional System in Rikit Musara Village,

Permata District, Bener Meriah Regency, Aceh

Province.

B. Finding Community Empowerment Strategies

will Increase Farmer Knowledge and Improve

Coffee Quality and Productivity in Rikit Musara

Village, Permata District, Bener Meriah

Regency.

2 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

2.1 Cultivation of Coffee Plants

Cultivation of coffee plants has strategic importance

in agriculture, due to its unique characteristics such as

taste and acidity. Coffee is a plant that is used to

maintain the structure of water resources properly.

Therefore, the coffee plant is said to be a water

conservation plant. Coffee plants are a source of

foreign exchange for the country through the export

of raw and processed beans. Coffee is also a source of

income for no less than one and a half million coffee

farmers in Indonesia. Good and correct coffee

cultivation and handling is explained in detail through

Good Agriculture Practices (GAP). GAP is a work

standard that is applied in every agricultural business

of fruit, vegetable, biopharmaceutical and ornamental

plants correctly and appropriately, so that high

productivity, good product quality, optimum profit,

Coffee Cultivation and Farmer Institutions in Rikit Musara Village, Permata District, Bener Meriah Regency

327

and can meet international standards are obtained.

(Fauzi, Cahya, and Saleh 2021).

2.2 First Section

Elizabert (2019), institutional is an order and pattern

of relationships between members of a society or

organization that are mutually binding which can

determine the form of relationships between humans

or between organizations that are accommodated in

an organization or network and are determined by

limiting and binding factors in the form of norms,

codes ethics, formal and informal rules for controlling

social behavior to cooperate and achieve common

goals.

Nurhidayah, Y, Etc. (2022), farmer institutions

have a strategic point (entry point) in moving the

agribusiness system in rural areas. For this reason, all

available resources in rural areas need to be

directed/prioritized in order to increase the

professionalism of farmers (farmer groups).

Currently, the portrait of farmers and farmer

institutions in Indonesia is still not as expected. The

development of farming communities through

agricultural institutions/farmer groups is a planned

empowerment effort that is carried out consciously

and seriously through joint efforts of farmers to

improve the diversity of the economic system of rural

communities. The direction of farmer empowerment

will be adjusted according to the agreement that has

been formulated together. With high participation of

farmer institutions, it is hoped that the sense of

belonging from the community for all activities

carried out will also be high.

There are three criteria so that farmer groups are

strong and able to play an active role in fighting for

their rights, namely:

1. The association must grow from the farmers

themselves.

2. The board of directors comes from farmers and is

elected periodically.

3. have formal institutional power.

2.3 First Section

Jim Ife explained that the definition of empowerment

is to provide resources, opportunities, knowledge, and

skills to citizens to increase their ability to determine

their own future and participate in efforts to influence

the lives of their group.

In Horista's book Community Development,

KMN (2022), the explanations from each of the 4

perspectives are as follows.

1. The pluralist perspective sees empowerment as a

process to help disadvantaged individuals and

groups in society, so that they can compete more

effectively. In a pluralist perspective, the

empowerment carried out is to help the

community by providing learning about how to

use skills in lobbying, using media related to

political action and understanding how the system

(the rules of the game) works. So, empowerment

is done by increasing the capacity of the

community so that they can compete fairly so that

no one wins or loses.

2. The elitist perspective views empowerment as an

attempt to influence the elite, such as leaders or

community leaders, officials, the rich, by forming

alliances with them, or by confronting and seeking

change among the elite. This effort was carried

out considering that the community had become

helpless because of the strong power and control

of the elites.

3. The structuralist perspective views empowerment

as a more challenging struggle agenda because its

goal is to eliminate forms of structural inequality.

In other words, community empowerment is a

process of liberation that must be accompanied by

fundamental structural changes and the

disappearance of structural oppression.

4. Post-structuralist perspective assesses

empowerment as an effort to change the discourse

that emphasizes the intellectual aspect rather than

action or praxis.

5. The social perspective of empowering coffee

farming communities in Bener Meriah Regency

must be from a social perspective where every

community must be free to interact with other

farmers in the sense of sharing care with each

other and cooperating with each other.

3 RESEARCH METHODS

This study uses a qualitative descriptive type of

research. This research was conducted in Rikit

Musara Village, Permata District, Bener Meriah

Regency, Aceh Province, data analysis through

observation and in-depth interviews with informants

who are considered to know and understand the

object under study, namely coffee farmers by

researchers. collect in-depth information about coffee

cultivation as well as community empowerment

institutions for coffee farmers in Rikit Musara

Village, Permata District, Bener Meriah Regency,

Aceh Province.

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4 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

4.1 Overview of Research Sites: Rikit

Musara Village and Its People

Rikit Musara Village is one of the 26 villages in

Permata District with an area of 39.83 Km². All areas

in Bener Meriah Regency including Rikit Musara

Village have a wet tropical climate with a minimum

air temperature of 18.8 C and an average temperature

of 25.8 0 C. The distance between Rikit Musara

Village and the capital of Permata District is 5 Km,

with the capital of Bener Meriah Regency as far as 10

Km and the distance from the Capital of Aceh

Province as far as 372 Km. Rikit Musara village is a

village with a mountainous topography at an altitude

of 2400-2600 meters above sea level. The total

population of Rikit Musara Village is 270 people,

with a total of 178 households. Of the 270 inhabitants

of Rikit Musara Village. With the condition of the

village area which is surrounded by mountains and

hills, in general the village community makes a living

as coffee farmers and partly farming secondary crops.

4.2 Cultivating Coffee Plants

Coffee cultivation in Rikit Musara village has not

been carried out properly, there are still many coffee

plants that are old and there is no complete

rejuvenation of coffee, farmers do not cultivate coffee

evenly because people feel that the quality and price

remain the same even though they are not cultivated,

and not all land owned the community is productive

in one hectare of land not entirely planted with coffee,

this has happened in recent decades, the basic thing in

this case is because farmers have never been

promised success in farming and there is no

motivation and empowerment felt by farmers,

especially farmers isolated, while those who get

empowerment are only for farmers in urban centers.

4.3 Coffee Farmer Institutions

So far, various forms of farmer institutions such as

farmer groups that we can find in the Bener Meriah

Regency area have been developed, but their

development seems to be a project tool, not yet a

forum for true community empowerment. As a result,

their existence and performance are less than

satisfactory, even if their existence is not sustainable.

This can be seen that some farmer groups that exist

today are only administratively registered, but their

existence and activities are almost non-existent, even

if they exist, they are still very limited. Therefore, the

failure of development in the agricultural sector,

which is generally found in each region, is due to the

unpreparedness of institutions at the farmer level in

carrying out these functions. The function of farmer

groups is not maximized in terms of limitations:

1) Ability in land management

2) Capital in business

3) Low skill (skill)

The community also hopes that the coffee farmer

institutions will increase the knowledge and skills of

farmers to be developed so that each land they have

is productive and in coffee cultivation is also

organized so as to increase their yields.

4.4 Institutional Development Strategy

In the context of empowering the community of

farmer groups in Rikit Musara Village to achieve the

goal, a policy strategy is drawn up in the hope that a

solution will be obtained in empowering farming

communities to the maximum so that it has an impact

on decreasing the level of underdeveloped villages

and towards village independence economically, in

the Rikit Village area. Musara, especially a coffee

farmer. There are two components that will be

developed as a strategy for developing farmer group

institutions which are highly expected to support the

empowerment of farmer group institutions in Rikit

Musara Village. The two components are:

4.4.1 Institutional Internal

To achieve quality farmers, it is imperative that the

existing farmer groups have the motion or power that

can determine and influence behavior groups and

their members in achieving goals effectively. In other

words the group must function effectively in the

interests of its members. One of the important factors

for the realization of an effective farmer group is the

leadership of the members and the head of the farmer

group. The group leader can be seen as an agent

primary for group effectiveness, because of its

strategic role in influencing or moving members in

the group to achieve group goals and of the members.

4.4.2 Institutional External

Guidance from various agencies should be integrated,

prioritizing the interests of farmers, in the sense that

farmers are not used as objects for institutional

interests that are merely project administration. The

existence of effective coordination between

government institutions in fostering horticultural

farming communities can increase agricultural

efficiency and productivity through coffee farmer

Coffee Cultivation and Farmer Institutions in Rikit Musara Village, Permata District, Bener Meriah Regency

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business partnerships. The government's role is more

emphasized in the aspects of mediation, consultation,

and facilitation in building competitive horticultural

agribusiness partnerships.

This institutional strategy can improve the welfare

of farmers by strengthening empowerment programs

so as to make coffee farming communities

independent and knowledgeable in coffee cultivation

and cooperate in coffee farmer institutions.

4.5 Development of Capital Resources

As a solution in order to develop the capital resources

needed by the coffee farming community, a concept

is needed to reach a starting point in order to obtain a

source of capital for coffee farmers in Rikit Musara

Village:

1) Maximum land management is in accordance

with the concept of field agricultural extension

workers.

2) Processing of products that meet standards.

3) Opening opportunities for cooperation with

financial institutions in channeling capital to farmers.

4) Utilization of existing farming capital sources

efficiently and effectively.

4.6 Coffee Farmer Community

Empowerment Strategy

Improvement of human resources With the existence

of training and counseling aims to increase the

knowledge and skills of farmers in terms of

cultivating coffee plants. Efforts that must be made

by the Bener Meriah Regency Agriculture Office

must strive to create effective and comprehensive

training and counseling programs and have a target

for the success of the training and extension program

and focus on the problems experienced by farmers,

farmers also want the quality and productivity of

coffee to increase .

Local government support is a system outside the

farmer group institution that functions as a channel to

get opportunities to obtain resource support facilities

or services. As a form of government support as a

facilitator in the distribution of institutional

development funds for farmer groups in Rikit Musara

Village, it is given or disbursed through the

Department of Agriculture and Plantations and

Plantations of Bener Meriah Regency and then

submits it to the sub-district government to invite the

village head of each recipient of the development

fund assistance. institutions and everything that is

channeled from the government to the community,

must be evenly distributed and there is supervision to

the community so that in the form of any assistance

channel it will directly impact the coffee farming

community.

The role of the government in community

empowerment that is participatory in nature must

have concepts and development programs in the

context of empowering coffee farmers and the

government as a facilitator in developing farmer

resources, for example; cooperation with other local

governments in the context of comparative studies

between farmer groups in other areas, also opens up

opportunities for collaboration with private

parties/institutions in the distribution of financial

assistance. The independence of a society is a

desirable condition, is in the process then the stage of

community involvement must start from the

beginning, continuously and continuously.

Therefore, the role of management in community

institutions that put forward the principles of

community empowerment at this time and in the

future is very necessary. As a consequence, the

community is able and required to understand the

concepts, processes and objectives of community

empowerment and be able to understand the

circumstances and conditions of the institution itself

in order to achieve a society that is efficient in

development.

The government must also be at the forefront of

ensuring the welfare of coffee farmers both in

institutional cultivation and guaranteeing high coffee

prices, the government must also focus on community

empowerment programs not only with direct

assistance to farmers, if there is any assistance the

government must supervise to the farmers so that the

assistance provided given can be developed and

utilized by farmers properly.

5 CONCLUSIONS

5.1 Conclusion

Cultivation of coffee in Rikit Musara Village,

Permata District, Bener Meriah Regency, has not

been carried out properly, all farmers are not

productive in processing coffee plantations, farmers'

understanding is still lacking and there are no

standard provisions in coffee cultivation. Institutional

development strategies in empowering coffee farmers

which are then expected to become references and

concepts in self-awareness and capacity building in

the coffee farming community are; development

strategy for empowering coffee farmers, developing

effective training and counseling, providing capital,

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government participation. The government should

also focus on farmer empowerment programs, as well

as increasing the knowledge of coffee farmers.

5.2 Suggestion

From the results of this study, suggestions are given

to the government, in this case the Agriculture

Service of Bener Meriah Regency, in the future, in

efforts to cultivate coffee plants and empower coffee

farming communities, they must first improve the

quality of their human resources through training in

optimizing land use. The government is more open to

formulating programs in collaboration with external

parties, where these programs are adapted to the

characteristics of the local community, in an effort to

empower coffee farming communities, especially

those based on welfare improvement, so that

empowerment programs are transformative,

sustainable and sustainable. produce independent

farming communities. In an effort to develop and

strengthen farmer institutions in Rikit Musara

Village, Permata District, Bener Meriah Regency, is

to prepare the community itself. The government also

in providing assistance to farmers must also be

supervised in an orderly manner, such as the

provision of superior seeds, many farmers suffer that

these seeds are not being used properly, they should

be monitored until the assistance is productive.

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