Poverty alleviation system of dryland farm community in karst mountains Gunungkidul, Indonesia

Abstract

Poverty is essentially an economic inability to meet the basic food and non-food needs (housing, clothing, education and health). The vulnerability of natural, agro-climate and geographical conditions in which are not suitable for agricultural economic activities, the income of farm community in the karst mountains region is very small. One of the popular dryland karst mountains regions in Java is Gunungkidul that lately has very volatile rainfall and experienced extreme climate changes due to the tropical cyclone. Most farm households are in pre-prosperous condition. The effects of climate change are further exacerbating the conditions of the farm community. In order to overcome the poverty of the dryland farm community in the karst mountains, an appropriate poverty reduction system that comprehensive and easy to implement is necessary. Furthermore, this study aims to design a poverty alleviation system for dryland farm community in the karst mountain region by using focused group discussion (FGD) of farmers, agribusiness actors, government and academic. Mapping problems and solutions were done by classifying field data in the form of minutes and FGD transcripts into a diagram figure. The FGD was focused on the Triple Helix concept which became the basis for designing poverty alleviation systems. The result showed that lack of water is the main problem for the farm community in Gunungkidul. The collaboration among the farm community, government and academic becomes an alternative poverty alleviation system in the study area. In addition, it may implement the integrated farming of plant and livestock with a conservation model based on appropriate innovation technology.