Governance in the Cassava Food Estate Programme in Gunung Mas Regency, Central Kalimantan Province, Indonesia

The food crisis due to the impact of Covid 19 in early 2020 is the background to the policy thinking of food estate programmes in all regions of Indonesia. Gunung Mas Regency, Central Kalimantan Province is one of the focuses of programme implementation, especially cassava food estate. The presence of the cassava food estate program initiated by the Ministry of Defence of the Republic of Indonesia in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Public Works and Public Housing faces three fundamental problems, namely 1) the lack of optimal involvement of local indigenous peoples in the implementation in the field; 2) not all land is suitable for cassava plants; and 3) some land has been certified as privately owned by the local community. Using a governance approach and descriptive-analytical research methods, this research will identify local resources, both actors and land at the district level as well as at the level of the 4 food estate villages as a support for the food estate policy. Data mining uses survey data sources, document data, interviews and FGDs (focus group discussions). The results of the research during April-December 2024 found 1) in terms of governance performance, the cassava food estate programme was dominated by the role of the state (government: The community only received one-way socialisation from the government and received a ready-made program from the Ministry of Defence; 2) in terms of key actors of governance at the village level, it was found that the actors who played a dominant role were the government from the village head, babinsa, agriculture office to the top structure of the Ministry of Defence; and 3) in terms of other resources besides cassava, it turns out that on the food estate land there are many other resources besides cassava that can be planted, namely fruits, corn, or local varieties of rice, namely siung rice, as well as other food sources such as livestock and fisheries.