The roles of local institutions to improve farmer access to foods and production capacities

How smallholder farmers meet their needs during scrarcity of foods always become subject of questions. Local institutions are expected to play some key roles for marginal farmer households for their survival.The objectives of the study were (1) to describe farmers’ activities in meeting foods for their family, (2) to analyze the roles of local institutions in improving farmers’ access to foods and capacities to produce the foods, and (3) to analyze the correlation between the roles of local institution and the farmer access to foods and capacities to produce foods. The study was conducted at a transmigrant group in the Village of Peoho of the sub-regency of Watubangga (Regency of Kolaka), which was located in the Indonesia’s Southeast Sulawesi Province. We used a survey technique, in which simple random sampling method was applied. The target population was all of the farmer households in the proposed village. The quantitative data were analyzed discriptively, and to asess the correlations we used Spearman Rank Correlations Analysis. Throughout the study we administered qualitative data to back up the quantitative data. The study showed that (1) farmers’ activities in meeting their needs for foods were somewhat varied, such as producing crops from their farming lands, food sharing with their relatives during famine or harvest failure, borrowing from their social networks, such as acquaintances, neighbours, or local kiosks/warungs, and later repaying it after harvest; (2) the local institutions that played a role in meeting access to foods were the village authority, kiosks/warungs, families, and neighbors, while institutions contributed to improve capacities for food productions were farmer groups, agricultural extensions, family, and neighbours; and (3) there was a significant relationship between the roles of the local institutions and the access of farmers to foods and their production capacities, indicating the strategic positions of local institutions in facilitating the marginal farmers in meeting food needs. The authors suggest to improve the linkages among local institutions to enhance farmer institutions and households in produce various foods.