Self-organization and crop insurance to enhance livelihood resilience: A case of rice farmers in Cirebon Regency, Indonesia

Abstract

Climate variability and change that affects extreme weather events has resulted in long dry season and drought in Indonesia. Farmers become a vulnerable group since drought has damaged rice fields, making them lose their income. Therefore, rice farmers’ livelihood resilience needs to be enhanced in order to cope with those impacts. Crop insurance as financial capital could contribute to famers’ income stability against drought. Moreover, self-organization helps the farmers understand agricultural risks and increase their adaptive capacity in times of extreme weather events. Accordingly, this paper investigates the impact of drought on rice production and farmers’ income, by analyzing the benefits of crop insurance and the support of selforganization to enhance livelihood resilience with a case of Kapetakan Sub-district in Cirebon Regency, Indonesia. The study employed mixed-methods by combining qualitative and quantitative data based on official data from government, in-depth interview, and literature review. The study reveals drought, for instance El Nino’s drought in 2015, has resulted in lower rice production and farmers’ income compared to 2014. Crop insurance could increase farmers’ income as compensation due to drought, yet, there have been many farmers who do not have crop insurance. Moreover, self-organization related to the network capacity of farmers tends to be limited within farmer groups at village level. The government or other stakeholders should assist in expanding the network of farmers to enable them to interact and learn with other organizations outside the region. Thus, knowledge and skills of farmers which include benefits of crop insurance and how to manage it will increase by being able to choose adaptation option. This condition will contribute to the enhancement of farmers’ livelihood resilience to recover from extreme weather events.