P4K -Pembinaan Peningkatan Petani Kecil- in Indonesia - 1

P4K (Pembinaan Peningkatan Petani Kecil)in Indonesia works to better the lives of poor marginal farmers and the landless in more than 2500 villages in Indonesia. P4K has identified 220,000 low-income families for their credit scheme and has lent fifteen billion rupiah(US$ 7.5 million)in loans.

P4K works on the principle that poor people themselves know what is best for them and thus encourages the target groups to better their lives themselves instead of doing it for them and aims at helping beneficiaries improve their income levels.

The target group of P4K is identified as landless families with no regular income, marginal farmers with insufficient or very poor land, farm labourers or sharecroppers, fisherfolk and handicrafters.

They are further identified as the people living below the poverty line which is identified as being the equivalent to 320 kilograms of rice per capita per year.

The target group pf P4K involves both women and men. Women’s groups make up 35% of the total of groups and of the total number of beneficiaries, 40% is women.

In addition to being poor, the P4K target groups have further disabilities. The groups all live in rural areas and their level of literacy is lower than the literacy rate in their regions. Their health too is poorer than the majority of the population and they can not afford good medical care.

The planning and organisation of the P4K projects are done by field extension workers, who are mostly from the areas they serve. Many are trained agricultural extension workers.

The primary task of a field extension worker is to find pockets of poverty and to survey the existing resources and the small businessess in the area. The population of the identified area is then screened and those living below the poverty line are selected for the project.

Upon being identified, the target groups are motivated by the field extension workers to form into small groups of 8 to 16 members. The groups are then given a complete training on the organisation and management of the proposed credit scheme and encouraged to save regualrly. Loans are introduced to the groups only upon the building of a sound savings base.