Search Results (15)

Road connectivity and accessibility for the community start from the lowest level, namely rural roads. Rural road conditions reflect the condition of infrastructure in rural areas. This study aims to study the characteristics of rural road damage. The location of this study is rural roads in West Java, Indonesia, the case of Majalengka Regency. Data collection was carried out on Jalan Gunung Kuning-Sindang in May 2024. The research method and data processing used the Bina Marga–Indonesia (Directorate General of Highway) standard. The study results show that, in general, the rural roads are still damaged. Most of the damage to these village roads is due to poor road maintenance and water control along the road, especially in mountainous areas. Based on the priority order, a value of 9 was obtained to be included in the periodic maintenance program. Full article

The agricultural sector is a cornerstone of many developing economies, supporting millions of livelihoods, contributing significantly to GDP, and ensuring food security and social stability. This study explores the crucial role of off-takers in enhancing the resilience and sustainability of agricultural clusters. Through predetermined purchase agreements, off-takers offer market certainty, stabilize income for smallholder farmers, and provide essential support in capital access, technical assistance, and technology adoption. Employing a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) method and secondary data analysis, along with a case study focusing on an agricultural cluster in West Java, Indonesia, this research highlights how off-takers contribute to price stability, promote entrepreneurial skills among farmers, and foster social entrepreneurship. The findings emphasize the importance of building strategic partnerships between farmers, off-takers, and government entities to strengthen agricultural competitiveness, support sustainable rural economies, and ensure food security. Practical recommendations are provided for policymakers and stakeholders to optimize off-taker engagement in agricultural clusters, thereby fostering thriving agricultural ecosystems and economic prosperity in rural communities. Full article

The demand for coffee in the local and global markets has encouraged massive production at upstream and downstream levels. The socioeconomic impact of coffee production still presents an issue, primarily related to the social benefit and economic value added for farmers. This study aims to identify the social impact of the coffee industry in rural areas in three different coffee industry management systems. Many coffee industries exist in rural areas, with various management systems: farmer group organizations, middlemen, and smallholder private coffee production. This study performed the social organization life cycle assessment to identify the social impact of the coffee industry in rural areas according to the management systems. The results indicated that the coffee industry managed by farmers is superior in providing a positive social impact to four stakeholders: workers, the local community, society, and suppliers, as indicated by the highest social impact scores of 0.46 for the workers, 0.8 for the local community, 0.54 for society, and 0.615 for the suppliers. The private coffee industry provides the highest social impact to consumers (0.43), and the middlemen were very loyal to the shareholders, with a total social impact score of 0.544. According to this social sustainability index analysis, the coffee industry managed by the farmer group has the highest endpoint of social impact at 0.64, which is categorized as the “sustainable” status. Meanwhile, the coffee industry managed by private companies and middlemen is categorized as “neutral or sufficient”. The coffee industry should implement improvement strategies to increase their social impact to all stakeholders in their business supply chain. Full article

Self-purification plays an important role in water regulating ecosystem services aimed at protecting river water quality from pollutant inputs. The Citarum River is the longest river in West Java, Indonesia where the water quality has declined due to pollutant inputs from domestic and non-domestic activities. This study aims to investigate the status of self-purification ecosystem services and the influence of water quality in the upstream of the Citarum River, in the Cihawuk and Majalaya segments, which are rural and urban areas. The self-purification status was determined by the deoxygenation rate using Thomas’s slope method, and by the reaeration rate according to O’Connor and Dobbins’ method. The polynomial component regression (PCR) was performed to determine the significance of the influence of physicochemical factors on self-purification. The deoxygenation rates (k₁) in the rural and urban areas upstream of the Citarum River were 0.044 per day and 0.058 per day, respectively, while the reaeration rates (k₂) in the rural and urban areas were 0.196 per day and 0.156 per day, respectively. These deoxygenation and reaeration rates indicate that the self-purification status upstream of the Citarum River has been disturbed. This result also indicates that chemical factors have a significant influence on the deoxygenation process, while the reaeration process is most significantly influenced by physical factors. The deterioration of self-purification in the Citarum River poses a risk to the long-term availability of water resources. Therefore, this research encourages the reduction in the input of organic pollutants and develops a strategic plan for river management. Full article

Community-based agro-ecotourism is a tourism activity that utilizes the agricultural, natural, and cultural potential of environmentally friendly rural communities as tourism objects whose management is carried out by the local community. This study analyzes the sustainability and sensitivity of attributes that affect community-based agro-ecotourism in West Java. The study used a survey method of 237 agro-tourism actors spread across five tourist villages. The five tourist villages were selected purposively to represent the diversity of agricultural commodities and the zoning of West Java’s strategic crossroads. Data were analyzed using Multi-Dimensional Scaling in the Rapid Appraisal-agro-ecotourism technique (Rap-Agro-ecotourism). The results showed that community-based agro-ecotourism in West Java was sufficiently sustainable. The social dimension sustainability index has the highest score, while the technology dimension sustainability index has the lowest score. The most sensitive attributes affecting the sustainability of community-based agro-ecotourism in West Java are the number of tourist visits, availability of transportation facilities and infrastructure, cooperation with outsiders, preservation of agricultural businesses, waste management, and cultural arts festivals. This study contributes to the sustainability of community-based agro-tourism comprehensively through economic, social, cultural, institutional, ecological, and technological dimensions, so it is expected that adding literature on agro-ecotourism and become input material in the formulation of agro-ecotourism-based rural development policies, especially in West Java. Full article

Indonesia is an agricultural country, and most of its territory is in the form of villages that have the potential to be developed as rural tourism centers. One area that has the potential to be developed into rural tourism centers is Panjalu, Indonesia. However, the sustainable development of rural tourism in Panjalu, Indonesia, still needs to be improved, so the community cannot enjoy the benefits of this rural tourism. This study aimed to analyze the sustainability strategy of rural tourism development in Panjalu, Ciamis, Indonesia. This study combined two methods, consisting of the Multi-Dimensional Scaling (MDS) and the Analytic Network Process (ANP). The MDS results show that rural tourism sustainability in Panjalu, Indonesia is included in the sufficient category, with a sustainability index of 57,998; 66,278; and 51,862, for ecological, socio-cultural and economic criteria, respectively. The MDS also analyzes which attributes are sensitive to the sustainability status. The most sensitive attributes for each criterion include Biodiversity for ecological criteria (RMS 2.224), Local Community Involvement for the social-culture criteria (1.147), and Livelihood Diversification for the economic criteria (1.245). These most sensitive attributes are, then, used as a reference for developing sustainable rural tourism development strategies. As a result, the strategic priority ranking for rural tourism in Panjalu, Indonesia is rural tourism based on culture and community development. Full article

Improving access to safe drinking water in developing countries is still a challenge and Gravity-Driven Membrane (GDM) filtration systems may be a sustainable solution. Two rural schools in West Java Indonesia were studied, one as a control site and another having an installed GDM system. Chemical and microbiological water quality data were collected for an initial 3-month period at the GDM site and a final sampling at the study’s conclusion (6 months) at both sites. After the initial 3-month period, health surveys were conducted with students self-reporting incidences of diarrhea for 3 months at both school sites. An analysis of the chemical parameters indicated that both schools had good water quality. An average 2-log reduction of fecal indicator bacteria at the GDM site was observed, with the control site having numbers that exceeded the upper detection limits (>3.38 log CFU/100 mL). Student diarrhea incidence at the GDM site declined from 0.077 at the survey onset to 0.052 at the latter half of the survey period, while the control site had a diarrhea incidence of 0.077 throughout. The results indicate that GDM technology can serve as a practical water filtration technology, improving access to safe drinking water for rural populations. Full article

West Java is known as an area with high fertility rates in Indonesia; this high fertility is due to various factors, including the area’s geological nature, which causes the soil to be rich in nutrients for various types of plants. Because of these conditions, West Java has historically been an agricultural area and has become a food granary. Some regions in West Java are critical buffer zones for big cities such as Jakarta. As a farming area, the people of West Java have an agricultural tradition with a pattern such as a permaculture, which is known by the local community as “talun-kebun”. The “talun-kebun” is a form of shifting between cultivation and wet rice production regarding location, management, and production. Along with the massive conversion of agricultural land, the rural tradition of “talun-kebun” was later replaced by an intensive agricultural pattern using pesticides. Land conversion also caused abandoned land and abandoned agricultural areas, which have become critical land. Regarding critical land, several studies reveal that around 30% of greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change come from land conversion and deforestation. Therefore, critical land rehabilitation is one form of effort that can be achieved in overcoming climate change. Departing from the problematic situation, this paper discusses the policies that the Government of Indonesia and the Government of West Java Province can undertake in reviving and utilizing the tradition of “talun-kebun” as a model of local permaculture to help increase food production in a sustainable manner, thus rehabilitating critical land. Using a qualitative approach through literature studies, this paper makes some policy recommendations to revive the tradition of “talun-kebun” in the West Java region. Full article

With Indonesia’s marine resources abundance, it is appropriate for Indonesia’s economic growth to gear towards the fisheries sector. Fishery management in Indonesia is still not operating optimally due to a lack of fisheries management infrastructure. This study took place at the Fish Auction Place in Dadap Village, West Java, Indonesia. The actual problem is a fluctuation in fish catch due to seasonal factors that cause instability in fish prices and fishermen’s incomes. Furthermore, there is no cold storage for storing fish when the fish are abundant so that the quality of the fish will decrease. However, fishery cold storage is energy-intensive equipment, and there is a lack of electricity infrastructure in that coastal area. Renewable Energy Sources (RES) are the key for rural electricity because RES prices are lower, especially on-grid solar photovoltaic (PV), than fossil fuel-based. Consequently, the application of solar PV in Indonesia is still not optimal due to limited regulations. Regulations that hinder the economic value of On-grid PV system are the excess energy compensation percentage and the inverter capacity limitation. Therefore, in this study, we have modelled six regulatory scenarios related to On-grid PV system. The scenarios are how the current 65% excess energy compensation is changed to 85% and 100% (1:1 ratio) and remove the regulation regarding inverter capacity limitation. Furthermore, the ownership model of cold storage is also considered by dividing it into two models, which are commercial-based and community-based. These ownership models have different financial instruments. The simulation gives a new result by changing regulation assumptions that On-grid PV system has a lower Levelized Cost of Electricity (LCOE) than existing regulation because it can produce threefold more electricity to the utility grid with higher inverter capacity. Furthermore, the community-based cold storage rental price can be 16 % cheaper on average with all energy system topologies than the commercial-based ownership model. Then, by reducing the capital costs of solar modules and batteries in 2030, solar PV system’s LCOE will be lower by an average of 20%. It will result in an average reduction of 10% on cold storage rental prices. Finally, sensitivity analysis of the energy system is also conducted in this study. The result is that On-grid PV system is the most secure energy source against price fluctuations. Full article

Coronary heart disease (CHD) is one of the leading causes of mortality in many low-income and middle-income countries, including Indonesia, with elevated blood cholesterol level being one of significant risk factors for this condition. The problem should be addressed by combining healthy lifestyle and diet, where functional foods having a cholesterol-lowering activity could play a significant role. A group of compounds that had been proven to show cholesterol-lowering ability are plant sterols. To develop more suitable functional foods that could substantially contribute to hypercholesterolemia prevention in Indonesian population, up-to-date data about plant sterols dietary intake are required, and were not available until this research was done. This study aimed to estimate daily plant sterols intake and to determine the consumption pattern of foods containing plant sterols in rural and urban area of Bogor, West Java, Indonesia. The research was conducted with a cross-sectional design, with 200 respondents. The study revealed that the level of plant sterols intake in Bogor reached on average 229.76 mg/day and was not significantly different between urban and rural area. Cereals, vegetables, and fruit products were the main food sources of plant sterols in both areas. In addition, a list of several surveyed food items possible to be enriched with plant sterols was developed within the study. These results provide baseline data to develop functional foods fortified with plant sterols suitable for the Indonesian needs and taste. However, further studies are needed to confirm efficacy and safety of introducing such phytosterol-enriched products into a habitual diet, especially considering possible long-term side effects of plant sterol treatment. Full article

Home garden is a traditional agroforestry system, which is an ecologically and socio-economically sustainable land use system in West Java, Indonesia. It plays a fundamental role in providing subsistence food and income to local people through a multi-strata structure. Despite the importance of the home garden, which is strongly linked with quality of living, there is still a lack of quantitative data and information. Therefore, we quantified the economic and ecological characteristics of home gardens in the present study to evaluate their diverse roles. In addition, general strategies that are applicable to home gardens in West Java were developed for sustainable management. The results of this study indicated that: (1) large landholding size showed a significantly higher Net Present Value (NPV) than small landholding size when the home gardens were dominated by fruit tree species, (2) species richness, species diversity, and carbon stock did not differ significantly among the different types and sizes of home gardens in West Java, and (3) multi-layered and diverse species composition is considerable for sustainable management of home gardens in terms of income generation and against urbanization and commercialization in West Java, Indonesia. Further studies should be considered for developing a standardized and generalized model that is able to evaluate and quantify the various ecosystem values that are generally acceptable and applicable in rural areas. Full article

To reduce the negative impacts of risks in farming due to climate change, the government implemented agricultural production cost insurance in 2015. Although a huge amount of subsidy has been allocated by the government (80 percent of the premium), farmers’ participation rate is still low (23 percent of the target in 2016). In order to solve the issue, it is indispensable to identify farmers’ willingness to pay (WTP) for and determinants of their participation in agricultural production cost insurance. Based on a field survey of 240 smallholder farmers in the Garut District, West Java Province in August–October 2017 and February 2018, the contingent valuation method (CVM) estimated that farmers’ mean willingness to pay (WTP) was Rp 30,358/ha/cropping season ($2.25/ha/cropping season), which was 16 percent lower than the current premium (Rp 36,000/ha/cropping season = $2.67/ha/cropping season). Farmers who participated in agricultural production cost insurance shared some characteristics: operating larger farmland, more contact with agricultural extension service, lower expected production for the next cropping season, and a downstream area location. Full article

The impact of natural hazards on agriculture in Indonesia is becoming increasingly severe. Therefore, improving farmers’ capacity to undertake risk coping strategies is essential to maintaining their prosperity. The objective of this study was to investigate the determinants of farmers’ decisions on ex ante and ex post coping strategies in rural West Java, Indonesia. The study was based on a field survey of 180 farmers conducted in the Garut district from July to October 2017. The study used the protection motivation theory framework and applied three econometric models: binomial logit model, zero truncated Poisson regression model, and multinomial logit model. Most farmers (74.4%) adopted ex ante coping strategies. They were characterized as having higher risk aversion per capita expenditure and disaster experience, but lower discount rates and percentage of damage and locations in downstream and midstream areas. Coping appraisal perceptions were found to be important factors in the risk coping analysis. Four determinants of the decision on the number of ex ante coping strategies adopted were: per capita expenditure, land size, disaster experience, and access to financial institutions. The most common ex post coping strategy adopted by farmers was the middle-stress type. Full article

School lunch is not provided in public elementary schools in Indonesia, and students frequently buy and eat snacks at school. We hypothesized that providing a traditional Sundanese meal as school lunch would be beneficial for children in rural West Java. To test this hypothesis, we evaluated the effect of a 1-month school lunch intervention aiming at sustainability and based on children’s nutritional intake, hemoglobin and hematocrit levels, and body mass index (BMI). A lunch (including rice, vegetable dish, animal protein dish, plant protein dish, and fruit) containing one-third of the recommended daily allowance of energy was offered every school day for 1 month, targeting 68 fourth-grade elementary schoolchildren. At baseline, the prevalence of anemia was 33.3%. The prevalence of stunting and underweight were 32.4% and 2.9%, respectively, whereas that of overweight and obesity combined was 17.6%, indicating a double burden of malnutrition among the subjects. During the intervention, intakes of protein (p < 0.05), calcium (p < 0.05), and vitamin C (p < 0.001) significantly increased, while that of fat significantly decreased (p < 0.001). After the intervention, hemoglobin (p < 0.05) and hematocrit (p < 0.05) levels were significantly improved, thereby almost halving the rate of anemia. These changes were significantly larger in the baseline anemic group than the non-anemic group (p < 0.01). BMI significantly increased in the baseline underweight/normal group (p < 0.001) but not in the overweight/obese group. The school lunch intervention significantly improved nutritional intakes and health statuses, implying its potential for reducing anemia and resolving the double burden of malnutrition among rural Indonesian schoolchildren. Full article

Indonesia is facing household-level double burden malnutrition. This study aimed at examining (1) household-level double burden for the mother-child and father-child pairs; (2) risk of adiposity of double burden households; and (3) associated dietary factors. Subjects were 5th and 6th grade elementary school children (n = 242), their mothers (n = 242), and their fathers (n = 225) in five communities (1 = urban, 4 = rural) in the Bandung District. Questionnaires on socioeconomic factors, blood hemoglobin measurements, and anthropometric measurements were administered. For adults, body fat percentage (BF%) was estimated by bioelectrical impedance (BF%-BI) and by converting skinfold thickness (ST) data using Durnin and Womersley’s (1974) formula (BF%-ST). Food frequency questionnaires were also completed. Double burden was defined as coexistence of maternal or paternal overweight (Body mass index (BMI) ≥ 23) and child stunting (height-for-age z-score <−2) within households. Maternal-child double burden occurred in 30.6% of total households, whereas paternal-child double burden was only in 8.4%. Mothers from double burden households showed high adiposity; 87.3% with BF%-BI and 66.2% with BF%-ST had BF% >35%, and 60.6% had waists >80 cm. The major dietary patterns identified were “Modern” and “High-animal products”. After controlling for confounding factors, children in the highest quartile of the “High-animal products” dietary pattern had a lower risk of maternal-child double burden (Adjusted OR: 0.46, 95% CI: 0.21–1.04) than those in the lowest quartile. Given that the “High-animal products” dietary pattern was associated with the decreased risk of maternal-child double burden through a strong negative correlation with child stunting, improving child stunting through adequate intake of animal products is critical to solve the problem of maternal-child double burden in Indonesia. Full article