Sustainable livelihoods for farmers in Sulawesi

Description What is done in the programme or project and why, what results are pursued, who benefits from the activities and who are involved in the implementation.

The Sustainable Livelihoods for Farmers in Sulawesi –project will be carried out by the Student Union of the University of Helsinki and Payo-Payo in 2013-2015. The project is the continuation of a previous project of HYY, Payo-Payo and LPTP on the same themes. This project aims at influencing agricultural policy, providing better agricultural methods for farmers, improving post-production methods and teaching farmers to work collectively. The main themes of the project are environmental sustainability, self-sustainability and the empowerment of farmers. The project is directed at smallholders and landless and near landless farmers, in three villages in South and West Sulawesi, Indonesia. The project plans to form villages that are decently self-sufficient and sovereign in their livelihoods. This means that the villagers should be more empowered and free from dependency on governmental institutions. The project works towards sovereignty in the use of natural resources and agricultural production by the villagers. This way, the villages should be able to provide sufficient livelihoods in terms of both income and food, in a healthy and sustainable environment. Also, the idea is to give the villagers a sense of security from the availability of basic social services in their own villages, to become pools of knowledge that are a source of pride for villagers and to sustain harmonious relations of villagers by keeping up collective social traditions. Payo-Payo will enhance sustainable production and agricultural practices at the village level. Working through farmer groups in three villages, the project will strengthen the financial basis of farmer groups by improving their post-production methods and creating new forms of income. Project activities will take into account the different characteristics of each village. Tombobulu village will concentrate on post-production. In Bonne-Bonne, the main theme is to continue promoting organic farming methods and in Soga, to find ways to increase household incomes. The project will also cover policy advocacy and public education at the district level, to influence government policies that in turn will support work in the field through sound policies and programs.