Institutions and Rural Stagnation in Eastern Indonesia

This article addresses why agricultural productivity is still very low in peripheral parts of eastern Indonesia. The paper identifies rules and norms underpinning traditionalism. It further addresses how increased land-use efficiency can be supported while maintaining communal land ownership. Information collected from in-depth interviews was analysed based on new institutional economics (NIE) theory. I argue that the government, adat leaders, the Catholic Church, leading businesses, and internationally funded NGOs are organisations contributing to the status quo. Policy recommendations include awareness among international donors of what NGOs really do. Civil society organisations could contribute to a more efficient and democratic government and less feudalist traditional leadership. A government tax on fertile land could form the basis for a cadastre system, secure farmers’ permanent land-user rights, and also enhance land productivity, without reducing the values of a rich culture based on communal land.