Eko Listiyorini, Jakarta – Indonesia plans to mobilize volunteers to fight the spread of coronavirus in coastal villages and the vast hinterlands of the archipelago with part of a $4.4

Arya Dipa, Bandung – Home Minister Tito Karnavian is urging village heads and local leaders to speed up their budget proposals to immediately get transfers from the central government

Yulia Savitri, Palembang – Village head Heriyan of Serjiabo, South Sumatra, has a lot on his plate when it comes to administering and managing the village funds.

Jakarta – The village head of Neglasari in Jatiwaras district of Tasikmalaya, West Java, has been arrested after allegedly setting fire to the Neglasari village administration building

Fajar Pebrianto, Jakarta – The World Bank voiced its criticism on the distribution formula of Village Fund and the General Allocation Funds (DAU) currently executed by the Indonesian g

Silvia Irawan – In 2015, Southeast Asia's largest economy, Indonesia, committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 29% by 2030 (equivalent to 832.01 million tonnes of CO2 by 2030,

Jakarta – After taking a stroll around the Gamcheon cultural village in the South Korean port city of Busan, President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo says he want more villages in Indonesia to l

Antara, Jakarta – At least 200 houses were ravaged by fire in a village on Sebuku Island, South Kalimantan Province, early on Sunday, leaving more than 700 people homeless.

Nur Yasmin, Jakarta – The Finance Ministry will freeze regional government accounts that have been channeling rural development funds to bogus villages, an official said on Tuesday.

Jakarta – President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo has called on village heads not to use the Village Fund, which will soon be disbursed by the government, to construct village infrastructure, bu

Jakarta – The government will launch massive village infrastructure projects worth up to RP 60 trillion in 2018 that will be so labor intensive they could create as many as 14 million jobs.

Nethy Dharma Somba, Jayapura – The Papua Police will monitor the use of village funds amounting to Rp 4.3 trillion (US$322 million) allocated for 5,420 villages in 28 regencies and one municipality

Aman Rochman, Malang, East Java – Alleged corruption related to the use of village funds has hampered the absorption of the funds in Malang, East Java, according to reports.

Jakarta – The Villages, Disadvantaged Regions and Transmigration Ministry is set to sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the National Police (Polri) on the monitoring and use of village fu

Jakarta – The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) says it has received hundreds of reports from the public on the alleged embezzlement of village funds since 2016, prompting the anti-graft body

Hans Nicholas Jong, Surabaya – The government has decided to resurrect its Return to Village Movement (Gerakan Kembali ke Desa) initiative as a follow up to the launch of its 'dana desa' village fu

Venidora Oliveira – Member of Parliament MP Arao Noe said many village offices established across the 13 municipalities of Timor-Leste that are damaged are still waiting for the government to fix t

Nurul Fitri Ramadhani, Jakarta – More than a year after the passing of the Village Law, village administrations around the country remain in the dark over the legal status of the village-run busine

Nurul Fitri Ramadhani, Jakarta – The Villages, Disadvantaged Regions and Transmigration Ministry has enlisted the help of civil society organizations (CSO) to address problems at the village level.

Jakarta – Villages, Disadvantaged Regions and Transmigration Minister Marwan Jafar has asked Saudi Arabia to aid development in Indonesia's remote villages, to help improve welfare in t

Ganug Nugroho Adi and Ruslan Sangadji, Boyolali, Central Java/Palu – With the government set to increase the allocation of dana desa (village fund) in the upcoming year, President Joko

Jakarta – An alliance of civil society organizations has criticized the government of President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo for failing to improve the livelihood of farmers in his first year in office.

Ina Parlina and Haeril Halim, Jakarta – The House of Representatives on Wednesday passed the Village Law, a new regulation that, the government claims, will improve the welfare of peopl

Jakarta – Village heads threatened to boycott the 2014 presidential and legislative elections during a mass rally held in front of the House of Representatives, Jakarta, on Wednesday, i

Taur Matan Ruak goes to extraordinary lengths to hear the ordinary concerns of his people.

Hyginus Hardoyo, Boven Digoel, Papua – In Ogenetan, a tiny village located in Iniyandit, one of the more remote districts of Boven Digoel regency in Papua, residents recently donned the

Jayapura – The governor of Papua, fresh off a tour of remote villages, said past development efforts have failed to lift the majority of rural Papuans out of poverty.

Markus Makur, Timika – Papua has the seventh highest rate of illiteracy in Indonesia, with 200,000 people aged 12 to 45 years unable to read.

Tangerang – Dozens of residents of Sukamanah village in Jambi district ran amok Friday, beating up the village secretary and destroying the village administration office after the admin

Eva C.

As drought continues to grip much of Indonesia, it was little surprise to see agricultural policies in the news last week.

Oyos Saroso HN, Lampung province – Many thousands of people from Lampung have been forced to start eating cassava as the drought continues its stranglehold over the impoverished provinc

Jakarta – Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare Yusuf Kalla said on Wednesday that the government had distributed 1,800 tons of relief rice to 250,000 farmers in Java, which is suf

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja and Ainur R.

Evi Mariani, Jakarta – The current drought will not create a rice supply problem at home, but could potentially send millions of farmers into poverty, experts said.

Padang – Dozens of farmers from Kapa village in West Sumatra filed a police report on Wednesday, complaining about alleged intimidation against them by security personnel.

The Indonesian Forum for the Environment-Friends of the Earth Indonesia (WALHI) has called for protests against major banks around the world with investments in PT London Sumatera Indon

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta – A farmers union criticized on Tuesday the water resources bill for allowing private companies to exploit springs, which it said would harm farmers who

Nana Rukmana, Majalengka – The declining price of cloves has prompted farmers in Talaga and Baturajeg districts to uproot their clove trees, saying they could no longer afford to mainta

Moch. N.

Nana Rukmana, Indramayu, West Java – Over 45,000 hectares of rice plants in the Indramayu and Cirebon regencies, known as the rice belt of West Java, have withered following the early a

Bernie K.

Sian Powell, Jakarta – Bullets cracked through the smoke from three blazing vegetable trucks and a flaming bus in the village of Teupin Raya as the battle for Aceh grew more heated yest

Jakarta – Thousands of poor people in Banggai and Banggai Islands in Central Sulawesi are reportedly facing famine, following the sharp decrease in theLuwuk logistics sub-depot's rice s

Yeoh En-lai – Bali's famous beaches and spas are not the only places experiencing a dry spell.

Semarang – Because the price of tobacco has plummeted to only 5,000 rupiah per kilogram in the last period, the economic conditions for tobacco farmers in the central tobacco plantation

Middlemen, smugglers, exorbitant tariffs in foreign countries and a dire need for agricultural reform are all leading Indonesian farmers to take drastic action to protect their liveliho

Multa Fidrus, Tangerang – Life is hard for thousands of farmers in the northern coastal areas of Tangerang regency.

Bill Guerin – Thousands of Javanese sugarcane farmers staged a massive rally in Jakarta on Tuesday demanding protection from the glut of cheap imported sugar that has threatened their v

Jakarta – Thousands of farmers across the country marked National Farmers' Day on Tuesday with protests demanding comprehensive land reform and protection from the relentless onslaught