The Development of a Group Dynamics-Based Farmer Empowerment Model for Self-Reliance in Agricultural Activities in West Bandung District, West Java, Indonesia

The primary objective of this research is to establish a dynamic group-based farmers' empowerment model that aims to increase self-reliance among farmers, hence an empowerment model of education in improving farmer abilities in regard to farming. The importance of groups in farm management are, among others, to overcome institutional barriers, to make use of irrigation systems optimally, to enable the utilization of goods, capital, and ecosystem management are emphasized. Empowerment is providing an opportunity to freely choose various alternatives and make decisions according to the level of consciousness, ability, and desire, and providing an opportunity to learn from successes and failures in response to changes, to be able to control the future. In this study, scenarios such as farmer empowerment not being able to address the needs of farmer groups, agri-business efforts conducted by farmer groups being merely theory-based rather than experience-based, and independent farmer groups still constrained from business networking and capital for starting agribusinesses will be addressed. This research was also based on community empowerment, self-reliance, entrepreneurship concepts and counselling program. The methods used are mixed-methods approach with the qualitative approach being used to describe the conditions of the actual implementation; and a quantitative approach was used to test the effectiveness of the actual developed model using a pre-test and post-test experimental design applied to a single experimental group with no control group. Results of this research showed that the development of a dynamic group-based farmer empowerment model is of impact for the self-reliance of the farmers and it can be the basis to achieve autonomy and sustainability if well implemented.