The Impact of Agritourism on Social Mobility in Indonesia
Farmers are one of the important group within the social structure of agricultural society especially in Indonesia because of it well-known as an agricultural country with the number of farmers population who could be described as the majority group. Based on this, Indonesia has a great potential for developing agrotourism that hopefully improve the income of farmers and also preserve existing natural resources (Ministry of Agriculture, 2013).
Agritourism is usually developed by a local technology that already exists since long ago. In this case, the development of agritourism is using the presence of ICT such as an internet. For example, Bali Pulina is well-known as coffee plantation which is visited by many tourists (Kintamani. id, n.d). This place has been built since 2011 which aims to increase the income of a local coffee farmer, then it evolves with the promotion over the internet. This showed the existence of the social changes that occurred in that community. Then, it indicates that there is an open opportunity for local farmers to improve their life.
So, what is agritourism?
Agritourism is a commercial enterprise at a working farm, ranch, or agricultural plant conducted for the enjoyment of visitors that generates supplemental income for the owner. In Indonesia, agritourism is tourism activities that utilize of agro (agribusiness) as a tourist attraction with the purpose of expanding knowledge, experience, leisure, and business relationships in the field of agriculture.
According to Anthony Giddens (2000), social mobility refers to the movement of individuals and groups between different socio-economic positions. The amount of vertical mobility in a society is a major index of the degree of its ‘openness’, indicating how far talented individuals born into lower strata can move up in socio-economic ladder. This type of vertical mobility consists of intragenerational mobility, intergenerational mobility, and structural mobility.
So, agritourism became one of a way to open the opportunity for farmers in conducting vertical social mobility. The development of agritourism opens an opportunity to improve the well-being of farmers' life which is supported by the utilization of technology and social change agents that also plays an active role to empower society. It is also supported by the change in the mindset of the farmers and emerging new values to work more productively so that not only the career of farmers increased itself but also on the family because it got a good quality education and a job it deserves.
Agritourism, Social Mobility, and Social Change
Previously agritourism entered society, there are some reality happened such as farmers are only planting the field to fulfill their basic needs, a uniform crop, there are no alternative decent jobs, the blocked of village’s development. So, the vertical social mobility is hard to occur in the community itself. Then, agritourism brought changes to the villagers. The positive impact of agritourism is supported with IT, is making the village became more developed because it could be famous to foreign countries through promotion, improving social mobility within the community of the village due to increased quantity and quality of school in the village, then the existence of the construction of supporting facilities such as roads from the agritourism, as well as the increasing welfare society because jobs are more heterogeneous as the existence of the new venture and also the new kinds of farmers.
This can minimize the existence of unemployment in the region because of the presence of a productive sector of the economy which is making the construction of the village become more heavily committed. This process of change can occur through public perception which accepts changes and agritourism as the channel of social changes. With the attitude of the imitative community and community needs for the economic fulfillment become internal factors that are important. Later, the community actively participated in the development of agritourism and simple to adjust to the culture of the travelers become external factors.
Social change agent consists of the village chief, corporation, NGO, and farmer itself. The ability of a social change agent ever assessed an important element in the village of agritourism, such as leadership development and innovations through technological advances. For example, in Mlatiharjo, the village chief who served as agents of social change in support of agritourism, as it runs a structural function which in accordance with the policy of the development of agritourism in Indonesia, namely the decision of the Ministry of Agriculture. In addition to the village chief, the company through its CSR programs can help farmers in developing agritourism in that area. Both these parties can solve the problem of limited knowledge of farmers and also the construction of supporting facilities for the village such as happened in the village of Sembalun.
Then, World Agroforestry Centre hold a project named Agroforestry and Forestry in the year 2014 in the village of Aunupe, Southeast Sulawesi. This project was held to educate farmers through the fostering of farmer groups so as not to damage the forests and manage environmentally friendly land. In addition, farmers can act to develop agritourism, such as in the village of Lewi Ereng which a farming innovation is packaged creatively by looking at the potential of the village is orange agritourism venture that is at once promoting the area of Garut and in the village of Ngirinrejo, farmers use IT to expand star fruit business starting from harvest until the promotion of agriculture products.
The existence of social change agent in developing agritourism surely will achieve a good result such as increasing the number of productivity of agriculture products being promoted and sold widely, then it will increase the income of farmers. For example, farmers can take advantage of such knowledge to manage the land with organic material such as in the village of Aunupe. In addition to improving career for farmers themselves, this agritourism also makes young men interested in working for the village to manage the area and sell souvenirs. That village has more diverse job sectors, not only the farm. Later, agritourism also makes the village more developed with the construction of other facilities such as schools, which have an impact on increasing the quantity and quality of education as it is in the village of Cihideung. Farmers can send his children, who then after they graduate will get decent jobs for the fulfillment of life.
However, the agritourism also has a negative impact that is may weaken the traditional traits of the villagers such as the Gemeinschaft, reduced social interaction, reduced social solidarity, the decline of traditional cultural existence others. Then, a development that is too vigorous will lead to depletion of agricultural land that would make citizens do not have land and his ability as a farmer. Furthermore, agritourism can cause environmental pollution, increasing population, traffic jam, and increased criminality. The other obstacles in developing agritourism in Indonesia such as changes in the community require a fairly long time, existence of political rivalry, there are communities that opposed change for example in Karang Taruna, then gap ability possessed by human resources in the village.
Related to the policy, agritourism development plan provided in the strategic plan of the Ministry of agriculture in a way make the trial plantations in several areas in Indonesia, then floriculture innovation development, cultivation of horticulture, and hold gelar inovasi teknologi tanaman nationwide, which would be developed with the goal of food security (Strategic Plan of Ministry of Agriculture, 2015). For example, lahan gelar teknologi nasional in Aceh successfully developed into the agritourism. However, there are some development plans that are utopian because the program must be supported by the willingness of local governments, as well as the existence of gaps on the development potential of agritourism in each area. This is caused by the lack of involvement of the implementor of the policy, both in terms of budget and coordination of the implementation of each unit. Later, the development of agritourism only views based on indicators of physical development, which have not seen also on the socio-cultural indicators such as the local wisdom of communities in the area. (Sulaiman, et al. 2017). Then, the policy regarding plans for the development of ones has still obstructed the views of readiness of existing human resources.
The Challenge of Agritourism Development to Increase Social Mobility
The development of agritourism also has the good impact on societies such as farmers and their families. Any advances in technology are contributing to the agritourism in Indonesia, for example, to increase knowledge of the farmers themselves and the promotion of agricultural products or agritourism in that region itself. It also triggers the existence of infrastructure development supporting agritourism, which will make the area ones are growing and will have an impact on increasing the farmer’s career as well as his family due to an increase in the standard of living that is quality education and be able to get a decent job in the village without having to migrate to the cities.
However, the agritourism is not in spite of the adverse impacts such as the existence of a decrease in the amount of agricultural land due to the construction, environmental pollution, debilitating nature of traditional behavior, reduced social interaction and so on. Social changes resulting from the development of agritourism is also inseparable from the role of social change agent either from the local government, companies with CSR programs, NGO with their project, as well as the involvement of the community itself, such as farmers.
However, the inadequate implementation of the policy on the development of agritourism is still experiencing obstacles, which will consequently hamper progress itself. It is caused due to socio-cultural factors have not been observed in the community itself. A solution to these problems is to strengthen the role of the agents of social change itself in terms of implementing the agritourism development programs are well-coordinated. It was supported by the existence of a will to change both internally and externally as well as the existence of leadership which is owned by the agents of social change itself.
