Improving marketing and economic development

SPPQT (Serikat Paguyuban Petani Qaryah Thayyibah) affiliates farmers from 13 districts in Central Java Province. In the last 12 years, SPPQT has worked on developing political and social infrastructure in the form of farmers groups at the village and community level in the Central Java Province. In the next year SPPQT will work in improving marketing and economic development. The main problems to solve are too weak access to inputs and land, low production, post-harvest problems and difficulties to access to the market. Around 30% of the farmers have less that than 2000m2, and are called landless farmers or poor farmers. The inputs for agriculture are more expensive for the farmers, and SPPQT has found a way to solve the lack of access to inputs by transforming the farmers from conventional producers to organic producers and also work in a more sustainable way. This project will increase the skills and capacities of the farmers in adding value to their products and finding new markets to increase their incomes. SPPQT has experience in organizing the commercialization through the substation of peasant organizations (GTP), equivalent to a primary cooperative managed by the community organizations. At the moment there are 54 GTP with different levels of development. Some of them have transformed into cooperatives and entered the market in a more professional way.