The Capability of the Meranti Islands Regency Government in the Development of Sago Based on Local Wisdom

2.1 Local government capability

In managing food security at every level, the capability of local government is so essential and needed [21]. The synergic integration of the strengths of the elements of the organization can form a reliable government capability [22]. To create functional local government capabilities, required institutions with good networks between provincial and district governments [15, 23]. Then, a lack of human resources within the government environment can obstruct the optimal development of local government capabilities [17]. Besides, the inability to recognize obstacles, opportunities, and understand the existing circumstances, can influence and hinder the ability of the government to develop existing [24].

For this reason, government capacity building must be adopted at the individual and communal levels. Although some government capabilities have not been well implemented, government capabilities have essential significance and significant influence in developing existing resources [17]. Then, Government capabilities can improve planning strategy by increasing employee competence, organizational climate, and organizational capacity [15]. In essence, the capability of local government as an organization will be conducted with four dimensions, namely the Knowledge and Skills Dimension, Technical System, Managerial System, and Values and Norms Dimension. The four (4) dimensions are a series of organizational learning to improve capacity and capabilities and have an essential role in realizing the achievement and success of a government [14].

2.2 Sago development

In developing sago production, cooperation between the government and farmer groups can provide added value to the development dimension by utilizing the area and suitability of land and the creativity that exists in the community [2]. Also, for sago management to run well and sustainably, support from all relevant stakeholders, from the government, academics, entrepreneurs, farmers, financial institutions, and non-governmental organizations [4, 10]. Currently, Indonesia can sago-producing areas to support community food security [5, 13]. Therefore, if this potential is managed optimally, it will impact the right image as a productive sago-producing country in the world [18, 19]. The development of sago in marketing and exports to other countries can also open up new jobs for the community to increase economic growth [6]. Then in its implementation, the development of sago has challenges that need to be responded to well by the government, which is related to the development of superior products in the sago processing industrial area [3, 12, 24] so that it has an impact on increasing the ability and independence of farmers in each region [7].

The sago management model that the government needs to develop must increase farmers' income through downstream, labor absorption, and land adjustment [4]. To achieve this process, the government can play a role in policy and pricing, industrial investment, land selection [5], and supervising sago management [11, 25]. Currently, various obstacles in adopting sago as a locally based food that supports food security are due to the lifestyle and habits of people accustomed to consuming rice as a staple food [9]. This is where the government plays a vital role in developing sago as an alternative to local food [26-28].

2.3 Local wisdom

Fundamentally, local wisdom can be interpreted as a community commitment to maintain the principles of goodness in the preservation and development of local potential [29]. The idea of involving all stakeholders, ethical values, and an assessment of the existing potential can be used to provide empowerment based on local wisdom [30]. In the process of achieving this goal, the current modern management system must be sensitive to the values of local wisdom [29, 30]. Local communities responsive to government development goals can help strengthen current local wisdom [31-33]. Today's community empowerment has changed to knowledge, skills, attitudes, and capacities and the coordination of social capital to increase local potential. Although there are still obstacles, empowerment based on local wisdom is continuous [32, 33]. Various studies [8, 11, 20] have explained that utilizing the potential of land availability, expanding network and market absorption, forming capital cooperation, adopting technology, optimizing income and community awareness, and improving the quality of talented human resources in agriculture will be able to provide a contribution to the existence of local wisdom in the field of food development activities. Thus, the government's ability to identify the potential for sago development based on local wisdom is highly dependent on internal conditions in an area [1, 26].

Several previous studies have shown that the sago development strategy to support local food security has many challenges that the government must manage [34, 35]. In addition, there are many unanswered questions regarding how the development of sago based on local wisdom should be carried out optimally? For this reason, a comprehensive study of the various dimensions of the capability of the Meranti Islands Regency government is needed in the development of sago based on local wisdom.

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4.1 Local government capability in the knowledge and skills dimension

Table 2. List of constraints and challenges to sago development in the meranti islands regency

Source: Analysis Data Mamun Murod, 2019 [4].

In developing sago in the Meranti Islands Regency, the Regional Government has delegated duties and authorities in the agricultural sector to the Forestry and Plantation Service and the Food and Animal Husbandry Service of the Meranti Islands Regency. However, in its implementation, regional apparatus organizations' capabilities have not been maximal in making breakthroughs to increase sago productivity. In the process, the "One Day With Sago" Program has been socialized by the Meranti Islands Regency Government to the surrounding community. However, the socialization process implemented has not been able to have a significant impact. It can be seen from the people who currently still consume rice as a staple food. Moreover, only make sago as the second staple food. The local government's failure of socialization is caused by a lack of skilled policy resources, both human resources and inadequate facilities and infrastructure. Nevertheless, the lack of technology in processing sago into rice is another factor causing various local governments' failure in developing sago in the Meranti Islands. The constraints indicated by local governments can be seen in Table 2.

Based on the above Table 2, it can be seen that some of the obstacles that the regional government is facing in the development of sago in the Meranti Islands are related to the lack of human resources and also the infrastructure that is hampering several programs that the local government has intensified. In addition, the high poverty rate due to the rampant bonded system in community sago gardens has caused the income of sago farmers from selling sago to be very minimal, the bonded system is a system where people plant sago trees, and then traders of Chinese descent buy their sago trees which are still young. As an illustration, when farmers sell one sago stick to the owner of the sago refinery, the farmer will get Rp. 500,000-Rp. 700,000, whereas if the farmers do the bonded labor system, they only get Rp. 100,000-Rp. 200,000 per stem, the minimum income of these farmers ultimately impacts the deep fulfillment of community needs that are only sufficient to meet daily needs. On that basis, local governments must evaluate their capabilities in developing better sago. Research [19, 20] confirms that the Meranti community still has great potential to return to consuming sago as local food. One of the local government's actions to restore people's habits in consuming songs is the "One Day with Sago" program [9]. However, in practice, this program has not been able to achieve the stated goals due to several factors, such as the community's response is still lacking in implementing sago consumption as local food, and there are still many people who do not know this program so that it cannot run optimally in the Meranti Islands.

Therefore, the relationship between government duties and local food production is related to the government's obligation to manage food availability and provide clear information about available food production, where rational government involvement can result in better nutrition for the local population while stimulating an efficient agricultural industry [39, 40]. However, if input support from the government is not provided, it will impact the tendency of smallholders to enter into contracts with private companies. This contractual relationship can increase production and centralize power with the private sector, which then determines the amount of product purchased and has the power to evaluate the commodity's quality. Ultimately, the price paid to farmers will not support the community's economy. For this reason, there are important priorities for the government to apply existing knowledge about effective interventions that can target food production and inform the public about dialogue between government actors and farmers regarding alternative sustainable food production policies [40].

4.2 Local government capabilities in the technical systems dimension

The Capability of the Meranti Islands Local Government in implementing the technical system dimensions looks stable when viewed from the total productivity of sago commodities in 2019-2020 in the following table:

Table 3. Sago production in meranti islands regency in 2019-2020

Source: merantikab.bps.go.id, 2021 [8].

Table 3 above shows that in 2019 and 2020, sago production in the Meranti Islands Regency tends to be stable with a total amount of 243.71 tons. Then, Sungai Tohor Village, located in East Tebing Tinggi District, is Indonesia's best sago-producing village area [19]. In general, the Meranti Islands Regency Government has supported developing sago as a promising agricultural potential. This was marked by the Sago Small and Medium Industry Center (SMI) in Sungai Tohor Village, Tebing Tinggi Timur District, which was carefully prepared with studies and explicit directions from the Ministry of Industry of the Republic of Indonesia. Then, several reasons were found, as shown in Table 4, regarding why the Meranti Islands should support and continue to develop sago as a local food ingredient for the local community.

Furthermore, three scenarios were carried out in the technical design and specifications for sago processing in the Meranti Islands Regency, namely Location Scenarios, Land Use Plans, and Mapping of Transportation Network System Plans [41]. First, the location plan for developing and constructing a Small and Medium Industry Center (SMI) made from sago is located in Sungai Tohor Village, East Tebing Tinggi District, Meranti Islands Regency. This location was chosen as a central location because this location is in the middle of the crossing of the Sungai Tohor Village to the sea and is inside a community sago plantation. At this location, along with the Sungai Tohor Village, several post-harvest processing sites extract pith from sago stalks taken from plantations in Sungai Tohor Village and its surroundings. Water is the main transportation for the SMI location and garden roads as agricultural roads. Currently, the development of the SMI center in Sungai Tohor Village can only be accessed by water or straits, so it is essential to provide water transportation with a canal road network system and design it properly as the primary transportation system.

Second, in the land use plan, the Meranti Islands Regency Government has prepared an area of ± 29,915 m² or 2.99 ha, located north of the Sungai Tohor Village. However, the land area prepared has not met the ideal land requirements for Small and Medium Industries (SMI) development. As an alternative, it is planned to add land in the southern part of the Sungai Tohor with an area of ± 23,598 m² (2.36 Ha) so that the total planned land area is 5.35 Ha and has met the minimum limit.

Table 4. The importance of sago development in the regency of meranti islands

Source: Analysis Results M. Rafi et al., 2021 [9].

Third, the transportation network system that supports the activities of industrial centers in the Meranti Islands Regency is divided into 2, namely the road network transportation system and the sea network. The road network system is a unified road network consisting of a primary road network system and a secondary road network system interwoven in a tiered relationship. The road network system is prepared concerning the regional spatial plan and considering the connectivity between regions and urban and rural areas. Then, water transportation infrastructure consisting of sea and river transportation infrastructure also plays a vital role in supporting Indonesian transportation. Sea and river transportation infrastructure in Meranti Islands Regency is supported by sub-district capital ports, coastal rural ports, and international ports. The development of the central port infrastructure in the Meranti Islands Regency has five ports which are the assets of the Meranti Islands Regency. In addition to the port, there is also a ferry dock that extends the road infrastructure network that is cut off by rivers or straits. In its development, the technical design for the development of sago in the Meranti Islands Regency was carried out to develop the potential of Meranti sago in order to support quality local food security.

4.3 Local government capabilities in the managerial systems dimension

The organizational capability of the Meranti Islands Regency local government in the managerial system dimensions, such as creating knowledge for local communities, can be optimal in the implementation process. This can be seen from the community empowerment process through the Bank Indonesia Social Program in Sungai Tohor Village, Tebing Tinggi Timur District:

1. The local government has invited the community to participate in the development of sago and gave them an understanding that sago can be developed into a better economic resource by forming a group in which the group is planning to carry out sago utilization activities.
2. The government has facilitated various equipment in sago processing, such as processing freshly harvested sago stalks or what is known as a sago refinery, raw sago processing machines, building for processing sago derivative products, and other facilities. These facilities are used to provoke the community's desire to participate in the development of sago. The community has well-received this effort by participating directly in the development and utilization of superior resources in the form of sago in the early stages and making Bank Indonesia more confident that the people of Sungai Tohor village have started to practice it in the field.
3. The government has involved the community in participating in the learning process on new knowledge about a new derivative product from sago, namely sago sugar, and what needs to be done before utilizing the sago plant and how to preserve it. At this stage, the social program of Bank Indonesia's Riau Province branch was also welcomed by the local community.
4. The government has given confidence to farmer groups to manage the sago mill and all the facilities provided by continuing to carry out systematic supervision. In addition, the group of housewives also began to practice processing sago-derived products such as sago sugar and sago noodles as typical foods of the Meranti Islands.

Then, the Regional Government of the Meranti Islands Regency has collaborated with various parties to develop sago in the Meranti Islands. The cooperation in question is the collaboration between the Village Government and the Sungai Tohor Village Sago Development Team, Tebing Tinggi Timur District, the Research and Development Agency of the Ministry of Agriculture of the Republic of Indonesia, the Manado Palm Plant Research Agency, The Agency for the Assessment of Technology Application in Jakarta, and also Bank Indonesia Representatives in Riau Province in the Sago Cluster program. Besides, local community sago development support is also budgeted through the central, provincial, and district budgets. The following are details of programs and activities for sago development through the Meranti Islands Forestry and Plantation Service in 2018-2020 as shown in Table 5.

Then, Sago has been very synonymous with the local community. Besides being a symbol of the Meranti Islands Regency, Sago has also become a symbol of the Selatpanjang City as the capital of the Meranti Islands Regency today. Several stages of harvesting sago have become a cultural attraction of the community, such as a running competition on sago tree as a show of skill in calculating sago tree that is assembled quickly in the river and bringing Sago to the sago refinery shown in Figure 2.

Table 5. Sago development program in the regency of meranti islands

Source: M. Rafi et al., 2021 [9].

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Figure 2. Local symbols and community cultural activities in the meranti islands regency

The utilization of sago, which has long been cultivated in the life of the Meranti Islands community, has produced several local pearls of wisdom aimed at adapting and integrating internal and external environments. Besides, this step is a strategy and capability of the local government in carrying out its main tasks and functions and following the vision predetermined mission.

4.4 Local government capabilities in the dimensions of value and norms

Dimensions of values and norms are a standard set to create knowledge content continuously reinforced by organizational leaders and embedded in management practices and affects all development projects undertaken. There are two critical sub-dimensions of the value and norm dimension, namely the extent to which government organizations can provide optimal empowerment to the community and how the public labels the status on the capability of government organizations in the management that is being carried out [15].

First, in the community empowerment process carried out by the Meranti Islands Regency government organization to increase the ability and knowledge of the content of current food production, it still looks not fully optimal because the dominance of sago processing in Meranti Islands Regency is currently running conventionally and only produces semi-finished materials in the form of sago flour, where the development of downstream products is still relatively limited in the form of noodles and crackers. The by-products in the form of waste sago dregs and sago husks have not been used optimally. Sago factory owners generally dispose of sago dregs into the sea. A small part of the sago husk is used for fuel, and some are used as engine foundation or load-bearing. Unfortunately, most of the sago husk is only burned to avoid accumulation. However, the government continues to carry out various ideas and innovations, where there are more than 300 types of processed foods made from sago in Meranti Islands Regency, such as sago noodles, sago rice, and seasoned rice, which are processed from sago flour and mixed with local ingredients such as cloves, cinnamon, ginger, and lemongrass. In terms of food production, sago flour is also very flexible to be reprocessed into various types of food such as sago noodles and sago rendang which are culinary characteristics of Riau Province. Thus, although there are still obstacles in the empowerment process for the community, the Regional Government, together with the Plantation and Horticulture Office of the Meranti Islands Regency, have developed a sago-based food industry that has the potential to absorb the labor of local communities.

Second, the status branded by the community regarding the capability of local government organizations in managing sago development can be said to be very good when viewed from the change in the mindset of the community, sago farmers, and other stakeholders. At first, the sago commodity in the Meranti Islands was ignored by the public sector because it could not prove productive local food production. However, over time, the Meranti Regency Government continues to convince the public and the central government to consume sago as an alternative food source and strive to promote Meranti's sago commodity to become more global. Then, these efforts impact the success of making the Meranti Islands Regency the largest sago-producing area in Indonesia with excellent potential to be utilized during a food crisis. The following are the performance achievements of the Meranti Islands Regency Government in sago production in 2015-2020, which is shown in Table 6.

Then, the development of sago production is also carried out evenly in every sub-district in the Meranti Islands Regency, where the East Tebing Tinggi District was the most dominant area (35%) in the amount of sago production in the Meranti Islands Regency in 2020.

Table 6. Development of sago production in meranti islands regency 2015-2020

Source: merantikab.bps.go.id, 2021 [8].

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Figure 3. Percentage of sago production by district in meranti islands regency

In Figure 3 above, it can be seen that by sub-district in 2020 the amount of sago production is dominated by East Tebing Tinggi District (35%), West Tebing Tinggi (28%), Tasik Putri Puyu (12%), Merbau (10%), Coastal Rangsang (7%), Merbau Island (5%), Rangsang Barat (1%), Rangsang (1%), and Tebing Tinggi (1%). Not only that, in the context of developing sustainable sago in the Meranti Islands Regency, the Regional Government has implemented several development strategies, such as the collaboration between the local government and banks in facilitating lower-middle entrepreneurs in obtaining soft loans as capital to shift the traditional process towards a production process based on technological innovation. Then, the trading industry in the Meranti Islands Regency also routinely exports wet sago, which is processed into the food industry with more attractive packaging to foreign countries such as Malaysia, Japan, and Singapore.