Page 407 - Ranah Studi Agraria: Penguasaan Tanah dan Hubungan Agraris

Ranah Studi Agraria

three-quarters of informal-sector debts were used for income
generation (to finance trade or agricultural or nonfarm pro-
duction) rather than consumption (cf. Colter 1984). In sum-
mary, the commercial surpluses deriving from large landhold-

ings and intensified production seem to be invested in a vari-
ety of nonfarm activities, few of which are new (vehicles and
rice mills are the main exceptions), although many of the ‘tra-
ditional’ ones are modernizing and expanding (for example,
through investment in machine-pressing of rooftiles in Sentul).
A similar impression emerges from examining the new assets
recently acquired by large landowners; in 1981 only in three
villages was any new land acquired by this group, the main
other form of asset acquisition being vehicles. The large land-
owners, besides their substantial farm surpluses, also have
the greatest access to subsidized bank credits; comprising only
3 of all households and 10 of all formal-sector borrowers, they
receive more than three-quarters of all subsidized credits (cf.
Colter 1984). We may suppose, therefore, that they will con-
tinue to be the dominant rural investors and follow a diversi-
fied pattern of investment in small industry, trade, agropro-
cessing, land acquisition, and usury, balancing these against
the demands of children’s education and conspicuous consump-

tion (televisions and videos, house improvement, etc.), which
are the most visible sign of growing differences in wealth and
life-style between rich and poor-even if the incidence of abso-
lute poverty is itself decreasing-in a time of relatively rapid
agricultural and nonagricultural income growth.
These patterns help us to understand why land concen-
tration is not proceeding faster, even though the surpluses

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