Economic Empowerment of Farming Communities Affected by the Flood Management in Selected River Basins (FMSRB) Program in Serang District

Abstract

The conversion of agricultural land into non-agricultural is increasing. The Cidanau-Ciujung-Cidurian watershed is an area affected by the land conversion. Therefore, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) together with the Government of Indonesia created a program named Flood Management in Selected River Basins (FMSRB) to overcome various problems in the Cidanau-Ciujung-Cidurian watershed. The research aims to describe the conditions of economic empowerment and identify efforts to develop the economic conditions of farming communities in the Cidanau, Ciujung, and Cidurian watersheds of Serang District. This study is an explanatory descriptive study. This study used primary and secondary data. The instruments used were questionnaires and interview guides.  Data collection methods used included interview questionnaires, focus group discussions, observations, library studies, and documentation studies. The sampling technique used was the Lemeshow method with a simple random sampling approach. The number of samples was 100 farmers. The analysis method used was multidimensional scaling (MDS) test. The results of the analysis show that the FMSRB program has a positive impact on the economic empowerment of farming communities in Serang Regency. The research findings show that the FMSRB program has a positive impact on regional development in Serang District. This can be seen from the increase in the investment climate for farmers; the investment climate can increase per capita income and regional income. The novelty of this research is that the FMSRB program is able to improve economic performance from two sides, namely the farming community on a micro and macro basis.

Keywords: community economic empowerment; conservation; flood management; sustainable agriculture