First published : 8 December 2016

To strengthen the knowledge on sustainable landscape management, Business Watch Indonesia collaborated with the Central Java Provincial Office of Food Crop Agriculture and Horticulture to conduct a workshop on sustainable landscape.

The workshop was held on 28 April 2016 in Semarang and attended by 21 institutions and agencies, including the Central Java Agency for Development Planning, Central Java Provincial Office of Industry and Trade, Central Java Provincial Office of Cooperatives, Yayasan Jateng Berdikari, Solidaridad, and representatives from five universities.

During the workshop, the Head of the Legumes and Tuber Crops Division of the Agriculture Office, Tri Susilarjo, presented Central Java’s Agricultural Office’s strategy and planning in the production of agricultural food crops and horticulture. In the presentation, he indicated that coordination and alignment of the implementation of the provincial Agricultural Office activities with those of each respective district/city were necessary to ensure achievement of goals and targets.

Collaboration with different stakeholders is essential to accelerate progress in achieving food security in Central Java through the development of an integrated agriculture.  A representative from the State-Owned Forestry Company Perum Perhutani of Regional Division 1, Mr Marwanto, indicated that Perhutani has also facilitated the achievement of government’s program in food security by providing some of Perhutani’s land areas for the production of food crops, especially in less productive land areas.

Other examples include a multi-sectors and multi-agencies collaborative program in Central Java in developing sustainable soybean in 2015. The Central Java Provincial Office of Food Crop Agriculturae and Horticulture, Central Java government-owned enterprise Citra Mandiri, Yayasan Berdikari, and a number of institutions and organisations have made collective discussions and planning to improve the production of soybean in Central Java. Witoro, a senior researcher at the Yayasan Jateng Berdikari, indicated that the cooperation has produced a draft strategic plan for the development of soybean sector in Central Java.

Gert van der Bijl, the global coordinator for Solidaridad the Netherlands for livestock and soybean program, said that no single person has the solutions to all problems but everyone can contribute to provide the solution in a collective manner. Collective discussion and planning can stimulate alternative and creative solutions to problems in agriculture, especially soybean in Central Java.

The workshop was one of the series of workshops held for the establishment of a forum on Sustainable Landscape in Central Java Province. At the end of the workshop, participants agreed that to develop an integrated agriculture, intensive and continuous communication with stakeholders are very important. Commerce, availability of superior seeds, technical support for farmers and price guarantee as well as coordination between institutions/stakeholders are some of the key factors that should become the agenda in the future forum in meeting food security based on sustainable landscape management.