How to address the regeneration crisis of farming? The “Petani Milenial” Program and the struggle of young farmers in West Java

This study focuses on analysing an agricultural development program called “Petani Milenial” in West Java, Indonesia, in the context of agrarian studies. It uses the lens of class, generational problems, and surplus population. Historically, agricultural development programs typically aimed to reduce socioeconomic problems in rural areas, including by improving productivity and addressing the regeneration crisis in farming. The main research question investigates why does the West Java Government created the “Petani Milenial” Program and who benefits from it? I address this question through an analysis of several participants’ experiences while following how the program is deployed in the first and second batches of participants. I also explored the perspective of the organizers of the “Petani Milenial” program. The findings suggest that several aspects of the program are similar to other governmental programs in the agricultural sector in the past. Firstly, only participants belonging to certain classes feel the benefits from the program while the rest remains struggling. Secondly, there were several tensions between the young capitalist farmers and the so-called “old” farmers regarding the practices of land cultivation which were said to be often unsustainable and potentially undermining social reproduction in agriculture. Finally, my findings show that precariousness still haunts the participants’ life prospects under the employment conditions of the capitalist era. In the end, agricultural development programs such as “Petani Milenial” only target a handful of people from certain groups with certain qualities and are not inclusive.