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Farm-to-Market Road Paves Way to Prosperity
A $56-million ADB-funded country road reduces agricultural costs and helps farmers improve their lives.
What is the value of a road? For an impoverished family that's been living in relative isolation, a simple dirt and gravel road can mean more food on the table, more money for children's education, and more financial security in times of crisis and hardship.
In Belanting village, on the Indonesian island of Lombok, 40-year-old farmer Mr. Maca has seen his life change since an Asian Development Bank-financed country road was built in place of the narrow footpath farmers used to haul their produce to market.
As recently as 5 years ago, farmers in Belanting had to pay Rp15,000 ($1.26) to take 100 kilos of rice to the market, a fee that significantly cut into their already narrow profit margins. Today, Mr. Maca says he only has to pay Rp1,000—less than 10% of what he previously did—and the profits from his farm have more than doubled.
“Before the road, my two oldest children had to drop out of school because we were too poor,” says Mr. Maca. “Now that I’m making more money I can keep my children in school.”
Poor Households Transcend Poverty
ADB has provided $56 million to support the "Poor Farmer's Income Improvement through Innovation" project in 1,000 villages located in five of Indonesia's poorest districts—villages where two out of every three families live in poverty. The project targets poor farming families that make less than Rp1 million a year, own little land, and cultivate staple crops.
By providing support for public investments in villages such as farm-to-market roads, rural markets, small-scale irrigation projects, and microfinance schemes, the project aims to help 400,000 poor households transcend poverty.
In Lombok, many families targeted by the project are significantly improving their standard of living.
"There are three main benefits of this road,” says Mr. Lalu Darmawan, head of the Belanting village investment body. “It has reduced agricultural costs, like fertilizer, and made it cheaper to transport goods to the market. It has reduced flooding in the area too—the road has ditches on the side that channel water right to the sea. Finally, it has increased the value of land in the area."
It wasn’t easy to bring the road to reality.
"This was a challenging process at the outset,” says Mr. Darmawan. “We had to convince people to donate their land for the road, and some people expected compensation, which we didn’t have the budget for. Now that the road's here, and they're making more money, everyone realizes this was for the best."
The road has made life a little better. Mr. Maca and his neighbors have a little more money, a little more food, and a little more hope for their children's future.
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