This year's World Food Day marked the 70th Anniversary of Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). FAO has been working with governments and non-state actors to tackle the underlying and immediate causes of hunger, to improve food and nutrition security, and to support sustainable agricultural development around the world. In partnership with FAO, member countries have achieved significant results in all these fields over the past seven decades.

Indonesia has been a member of FAO since 1948, and FAO opened a Representation in Jakarta in 1979. Until now, there have been more than 600 FAO programs implemented in Indonesia. FAO has been working hand-in-hand with the government and the people of Indonesia in strengthening Indonesia's food and agricultural sectors, including fisheries and forestry, to improve the food security and nutrition situation and support economic prosperity while also tackling rural poverty.

This year, the FAO Representation in Indonesia will award 70th Anniversary medals to some of the most active and promising small-scale farmers and other partners, who have worked with, and who have benefited from FAO projects over the past number of years. The medals are to be awarded to eight Indonesian individuals, who have in one way or another demonstrated an outstanding contribution to FAO’s work in Indonesia.  Several of them have continued with the good work well after the FAO support ended.

The awardees’ nominations have been reviewed by the Rector of the Bogor Agricultural University in Indonesia (IPB) to assess whether FAO’s choice of the medal candidates has been well justified. Given that this year is also the 70th Anniversary of the UN, the FAO medals will be handed out at the UN 70th Anniversary celebrations to be held in Jakarta on 10th November 2015 on the occasion of UN Day.  The FAO Representative, Mark Smulders, and Bogor Agricultural Institute [IPB] Rector, Prof. Dr. Ir. H. Herry Suhardiyanto, will present the medals to the candidates.

The medals will be awarded to:

• Berson, Forest Fire Prevention Project – Agricultural Innovation Programme, Central Kalimantan.

As Head of the Panenga Farmers’ Group, Berson leads 40 farmers who maintain 1,500 hectares of peat land.  He has demonstrated excellent leadership to his group. During the dry season, the Panenga Farmer Group produces several horticultural crops, such as chilies, maize, tomatoes, eggplants, and beans.  At the same time, the Panenga Farmers’ Group work to prevent the incidence of wildfires on the peatland.  The Farmers’ Group successfully built two ditch blocking systems and now, after two years of post-project activities, 12 ditch blocking systems have been developed covering the entire area of 1,500 hectares. This year, as a result of these initiatives, the farmer group has prevented wildfires from occurring, while neighbouring villages have suffered from fires burning out of control.

• Shinta Lona (Mama Fons), Regional Fisheries Livelihood Programme, East Nusa Tenggara.

Shinta (also known as ‘Mama Fons’) is a successful seaweed farmer who received post-harvest and marketing assistance from FAO through a Regional Fisheries Livelihoods Programme (RFLP). This program supported mostly coastal fishing communities in South and Southeast Asia. In 2012, the ‘Pillus’ product of Mama Fons was selected by the Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries to be promoted nationwide through the ‘national branding programme’ for fisheries products. The programme featured Mama Fons’ snacks in national trade fairs and also supplied a leading international supermarket chain. To replicate the success of Mama Fons and to provide policy support for seaweed development, FAO-RFLP and NTT Province’s Marine and Fisheries Agency have worked with the Provincial Planning and Development Agency to produce a Road Map for Seaweed Development in the province.

• Veterinarian Devi Kusmira, Emergency Centre for Transboundary Animal Diseases Program, West Sumatra.

Dr. Devi is a veterinary officer at the Livestock and Animal Health Services of the Limapuluh Kota District. She is a very dedicated officer and is a great role model and motivator for her colleagues in PUSKESWAN (Animal Health Centre) in the control of Strategic Infectious Animal Diseases. She is a committed Veterinary Service Officer (VSO) who has been working with the community to control Avian Influenza (HPAI) since 2008 in utilizing Participatory Disease Surveillance and Response (PDSR) approaches. Furthermore, as part of the implementation of the Integrated HPAI Control Strategy program in Limapuluh Kota District, Dr. Devi has engaged closely with the commercial poultry farmers and poultry association. Within a short period of time, she has successfully introduced effective vaccination programs and the 3-zones biosecurity approach at farm level in Limapuluh Kota District.

• Asrori Gagarin, Emergency Centre for Transboundary Animal Diseases (ECTAD) program in Jakarta.

Mr. Asrori is the Head of Pulo Gadung Collector Yard, with whom the FAO/ECTAD Indonesia project has had the pleasure of working with side by side since 2010. He has been a strong supporter of all the studies and activities conducted and implemented by the FAO/ECTAD Indonesia programme in collaboration with the Directorate General of Livestock and Animal Health Services (DGLAHS) of the Ministry of Agriculture to control Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI). Prior to the cleaning station construction and implementation of cleaning and disinfection activities in Pulogadung, no poultry transport vehicles were cleaned and disinfected before leaving the collection yard. However, as the efforts and hard work of Pak Asrori and the cleaning team, currently 30 - 35 poultry vehicles that are unloaded every day must be cleaned and disinfected, before leaving the Pulogadung collection yard, greatly reducing the risk of the Avian Influenza virus being spread.

• Maria Nino of  Anffeot’ana farmers group, Conservation Agriculture program, East Nusa Tenggara.

Maria is a member of the Anfeot’ana Farmers’ Group with 30 members (21 women).  She has demonstrated good initiative, and encouraged other members of her farming community to implement new techniques for a better future of the community at large.  She is a woman, who has a strong will and excellent capacity to encourage the adoption of conservation agriculture techniques in her village, Humusu Sainiup. She used crop residues as a mulch to cover the soil surface during the dry period. She harvested 2.7 Mt per hectare of maize, nearly double yield compared with traditional methods (1.5 Mt per hectare). Now, she is providing services for the promotion of conservation agriculture in her village.

• HM.  Ahyar, Bagus Mandiri Farmers’ Group, Conservation Agriculture Program, West Nusa Tenggara.

Mr. Ahyar has been an enthusiastic supporter in testing and implementing new farming techniques, such as those encouraged through conservation agriculture, while also motivating other farmers. Since 1997, he has been involved in water and soil conservation initiatives with guidance from the forestry office. On his private farm of 1.25 ha, Mr. Ahyar practices soil and water conservation techniques, of which 0.56 ha is managed using conservation agriculture techniques. Mr. Ahyar’s maize yield under conservation agriculture reached 5.5 tons/ha; with traditional methods he achieved only 3.5 tons/ha.

• I Gusti Ngurah Dibya Presasta, Emergency Centre for Transboundary Animal Diseases Program, Bali.

Pak Dibya is a veterinarian and member of staff of the Animal Health section at the Gianyar District Livestock, Fisheries, and Maritime Affairs Services. He is the Leader of the rabies control “A Team” named "Garuda", which won the dog-catching and rabies vaccination competition held by FAO ECTAD Indonesia consecutively in 2013 and 2014. Pak Dibya has been one of the FAO Rabies Project's most valuable trainers in dog-catching at local, national, and even international level. He traveled to Vietnam to assist with FAO’s rabies training programme there, and also has trained Sri Lankan and Chinese delegations in rabies control.

• Sumber Rejeki II Farmers’ Group, Strengthening and Revitalization of Integrated Pest Management, Central Java.

Sumber Rejeki II is a Farmers’ Group in Banyumas, Central Java, proposed for an FAO medal by the Directorate of Plant Protection, DG of Food Crops, Ministry of Agriculture.  Most of the farmer groups in this area are known to be some of the highest consumers of chemical pesticides, including Sumber Rejeki II. During the implementation of the FAO Technical Cooperation Project using a landscape approach, the farmer group has demonstrated its commitment to assist their colleagues in understanding the IPM concept and practices. With Support from FAO Indonesia, Mr. Sucipto, as a group leader, has called on his members to commit themselves to use organic fertilizer and ‘refugia’ (botanical and microbial pesticides), instead of chemical pesticides. During the 1st cropping season under the program (October-March 2014/2015) the farmers were able to apply far less fungicides to control a fungus attack. During the 2nd Cropping season (May-August 2015), the farmers no longer used any chemical pesticides on their plantation, using alternative methods that are less costly and environmentally friendly.

FAO presents these awards with great pride and pleasure, as they demonstrate in a small but powerful way FAO’s mission in Indonesia, namely to work with people of Indonesia to achieve our motto: “freedom from hunger”, and for everyone to have access to good quality and healthy food for an active and healthy life!