Empowering Farmer Through Credit Union

Nina Ndoda, a Theology Student, Theological Institute of Lewa-Sumba

Lewa, one of sub-districts in Eastern Sumba regency has inhabitant majority working as farmers, relying on their farms to earn for living. If you have ever visited Lewa, your sight will be delighted with the sprawling beauty of paddy fields. No wonder if Lewa has become East Sumbanese’s granary and Lewa rice is dominating Sumbanese markets.

Unfortunately, Lewa farmers are still living far from prosperity, even though if we analyzed, actually farming will give big profit, because Lewa farmers can harvest 3-4 times a year and receive money up to fifty million rupiahs at the minimum. But there are many farmers in Lewa that couldn’t afford to feed themselves everyday, many children dropped out of school, many of them are living in dilapidated houses, etc. It is very ironic that a place rich with arable land but many of inhabitants not living in prosperity.

Many farmers went debt-ridden with loan sharks became one of the reasons for the stagnation of the farmer’s living standards. Their freshly harvested rice is instantly given to loan sharks to pay their debt. When its time to sow the lands, farmers borrowed money from loan sharks to buy fertilizers and other accommodations, neglecting the high-interest rate, just focusing to have some money to start sowing rice. It is what is often called “digging a hole to close another”.

Empowering farmer through Credit Union is one of the methods to solve current issues. The principle of a Credit Union is togetherness and mutual cooperation with low interest, and of course, it will help farmers fulfill their economic needs. Farmer Credit Union, built upon the foundation of togetherness and mutual, CU will not be easy to break because it has a good foundation. Not only aiming to improve economic backgrounds, but CU also functions to accommodate farmers to be able to share their farming experiences. So, farmer’s CU can be a venue to share information and experience.

Attention from the government is very expected to get rid of loan shark practices that harm the farmers’ life, and to help them to manage CU through proper management training and many more. Let us empower the farmers through CU because it is rooted deep in one of the basic Indonesian values. Through high mutual spirit and empowering of CU, then our common goal, to eradicate hunger, to have bed-ridden free, and to enable farmers to have good health can be achieved. Long live our farmers!