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Indonesia Economic Benefits and the Transmigration Program
A study by economist Chris Manning pointed to several
trends
that helped to spread the benefits of economic growth
throughout
the rural population in the 1970s and 1980s. The demand
for
agricultural workers declined less dramatically than that
in other
nations during similar technological changes, even as the
supply of
agricultural labor in more densely populated areas was
reduced by
the central government's Transmigration Program
(transmigrasi--see Glossary).
Rice production was
increased
in part by expanding irrigation, which permitted more
frequent rice
crops per year. More frequent crops in turn required more
labor to
seed and harvest. With tiny Javanese rice plots rendering
mechanical techniques such as handheld tractors
impractical,
mechanization did not rapidly replace farm laborers.
Improvements
in transportation and general economic growth permitted
poorer
rural households to migrate to urban areas in offpeak
seasons,
where these workers often labored in the informal sector
for higher
wages than offpeak farm employment could offer. In 1985
BPS surveys
indicated that 36 percent of rural households earned a
major share
of income from nonagricultural work, and more than 50
percent of
rural households reported some income from work outside
agriculture. Other evidence suggested an increasing share
of this
income came from urban-based employment.
Nevertheless, poverty in Indonesia remained largely a
rural
problem. In the late 1980s, 35 percent of the rural
population on
Java lived below the poverty line, compared with 25
percent in
rural areas in the Outer Islands and only 8 percent in
urban areas.
The most innovative and controversial government response
to these
conditions was an extensive Transmigration Program that
financed
the relocation of poor rural families from Java, Madura,
and Bali
to locations primarily on Sumatra, but also to Kalimantan,
Sulawesi, and Irian Jaya. The sponsored migrants were
required to
be married, of good character, and to have farming
experience.
Migrant families received a small house and about one
hectare of
rain-fed cropland. A village center with public facilities
such as
schools and health clinics was provided by the government.
Most
settlements engaged in food cultivation and were expected
to be
self-sufficient at the end of five years; some migrants
participated in the Nucleus Estate Programs.
During Repelita I through III, FY 1969-83, almost
500,000
families had been moved under officially sponsored
programs. An
ambitious expansion to 400,000 sponsored families and an
additional
350,000 unsponsored migrants was targeted during Repelita
IV.
Because of severe budget cutbacks beginning in FY 1986,
only around
230,000 families were successfully sponsored during
Repelita IV.
Repelita V targets were substantially lower; in FY 1989,
only about
10,000 of a targeted 27,000 households were resettled.
However,
spontaneous migration without government assistance
continued to be
significant. The 1980 population census showed that the
population
of spontaneous migrants in Outer Island rural areas was
more than
twice that of sponsored migrants, although it is likely
that
spontaneous migration was facilitated by the
government-sponsored
programs. The problems confronted by the government
Transmigration
Program included land disputes with the local population
and
environmental concerns over the suitability of land for
settled
agriculture
(see Forestry
, this ch.).
Data as of November 1992
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