Social Capital and Implementation of Subsidized Fertilizer Programme for Small Farmers: A Case Study in Rural Java, Indonesia

A government programme for rural farmers in Indonesia is often implemented poorly in many villages. However, there is always a village that manages to implement the programme better than the others. The objective of the research is to understand the functioning of the subsidized fertilizer programme in a village that is considered to be a good example of the programme. This research also wants to know what role social capital plays towards it and in what ways it can be used for increasing effectiveness of the programme. The research was conducted from May to October 2013, by observing and interviewing all the stakeholders, in order to determine the best strategies to implement the programme. The results of this article are: (a) The implementation of the subsidized fertilizer programme in the village can run smoothly because of the involvement of social capital in the Rencana Definitif Kebutuhan Kelompok ‘the definite plan of the group needs’ preparation and fertilizer distribution; (b) the agricultural system with various time and cropping patterns need to be taken into account, as it causes differences in fertilizer needs.