Judul: Pengembangan Lembaga Unit Pengolahan dan Pemasaran Bahan Olah Karet di Sumatera Selatan
Abstrak: Smallholder rubber has a significant impact on the growth of the national natural rubber industry. As one of the most important plantation product commodities besides oil palm, coconut, and cocoa, the harvest of rubber plantations, which have been processed as raw rubber materials for industrial needs, also provides a high foreign exchange income for this country. Of course, this proves that the activities carried out by rubber farmers in rubber-producing areas have also contributed to the growth of new economic centers in the countryside. However, during the activities of rubber farmers, who for generations have still tended to apply traditional farming management patterns in the processing and marketing of raw rubber materials, abbreviated as bokar, this often becomes a problem. The efforts of the government and interested parties have not been maximized in providing attention and assistance related to the growth and strengthening of rubber farmer institutions. The existence of rubber farming institutions is a condition that becomes a benchmark to support the direction and pace of development of the rubber industry. This institution certainly must be able to show the level of success or the process of achieving a goal that is measurable in terms of quality and quantity within a certain period. The policy of the Ministry of Agriculture has established a basis for managing smallholder rubber plantations by issuing Minister of Agriculture Regulation No. 38 of 2008 concerning Processing and Marketing Units of Raw Rubber Materials (UPPB). It is known that, at this time, the Permentan has been revised, but the results have not yet been finalized. In 2010, the Ministry of Agriculture launched the Clean Bokar National Movement. At that time, there were more than 200 UPPB spread across various rubber centers in Indonesia, and now the number has reached 759 UPBB in 2021. The provisions for the formation of UPPB include several conditions, including having to cover a rubber plantation area of 100 hectares or having a minimum UPPB of 25 members. Based on plantation statistics, the control of smallholder rubber plantations reaches 85%, or 3 million hectares, of the total area of 3.6 million hectares of national rubber plantations and includes at least 4 million heads of families engaged in rubber farming. South Sumatra, as the largest center of smallholder rubber plantations, dominates the activities of growing and strengthening UPPB, where there are 413 UPPBs until 2023. The collective efforts of rubber farmers to gain more profit and added value through organized marketing by improving the quality of bokar must be pursued by becoming members of the UPPB. However, awareness of this is still constrained by government limitations and the lack of collaboration between existing rubber industry parties. Rubber peasant do not fully understand the importance of rubber farming institutions, plus the role of the rubber peasant community and the UPPB itself in carrying out its functions, they are still focused on marketing bokar alone, although currently there are also UPPBs that have succeeded in having other business units, not only marketing bokar. There are several things that are the focus of this research, namely describing
Keyword: komunitas petani karet, pelembagaan, perkebunan karet rakyat, UPPB