Populism and agriculture sector in İndonesia

This study is conducted based on two circumstances. Firstly, a continuous decline in the rate of agricultural economic growth in Indonesia. Second, while the agriculture economy is continuously declining, populism is getting stronger and dominating the political realm. Besides, the populism approach has become a widely used political approach by politicians or political leaders. Therefore, based on these two reasons, this study attempts to explain the impact of populism on the agricultural economy in Indonesia. This study uses the Library Research Method as a research methodology to answer the research questions. As a data analysis tool, this research uses a Critical Discourse Analysis and Historical Analysis approach. This study finds that although populism appears in Indonesia diversely, these growing populisms can be classified into two types, namely right populism and left populism. By comparing the three leadership periods in Indonesia, this study finds that these two types of populism affect the agricultural economy differently. Left populism that emerged in the Old Order era could impact the positive development of the agricultural economy. Old Order's various agricultural economic policies confirm that agriculture had become a priority in the national development processes. Meanwhile, right populism worsened the sustainability of agricultural economic development. As right populism becomes solid, the agriculture economy has been discriminated against and displaced by non-agricultural economies within the structure of the Indonesian economy. At the same time, the agricultural economy continues to be excluded from the national economic development discourses. In practice, these right populist leaders employ agricultural issues as a tool to gain power without actually striving for agricultural improvement. This situation gets worse when right populism continues to use neoliberal approaches in implementing political economy policies. The absence of a democratic space that can provide an opportunity for left populism to get involved in the public policy-making process emphasizes the dominance of a single economic approach in development policies. Therefore, if this political economy situation continues, the agricultural economy may lose its significance in Indonesia's development permanently. Keywords: Populism, Agricultural Economics, Development, Indonesia