* Corresponding author: Rahmat Pomalinggo Copyright © 2023 Author(s) retain the copyright of this article. This article is published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Liscense 4.0. Participation and social solidarity of farmers in supporting corn exports in Gorontalo regency Rahmat Pomalinggo 1, * , Ansar Arifin 2 , Munsi Lampe 2 and Pawennari Hijjang 2 1 Doctoral Program, Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, Hasanuddin University, St. Perintis Kemerdekaan Km 10, Tamalanrea, Makassar, South Sulawesi 90245, Indonesia. 2 Department of Anthropology, Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, Hasanuddin University, St. Perintis Kemerdekaan Km 10, Tamalanrea, Makassar, South Sulawesi 90245, Indonesia. International Journal of Science and Research Archive, 2023, 08(01), 254–259 Publication history: Received on 05 December 2022; revised on 12 January 2023; accepted on 15 January 2023 Article DOI: https://doi.org/10.30574/ijsra.2023.8.1.0051 Abstract The implementation of the regional autonomy system is clear evidence of such changes. Regional autonomy has brought about changes to the system of government in Indonesia from centralistic to desentralistic. The change of the government system also brought a share of development in the area including in Gorontalo Regency. One of the changes that occur is the help of corn seeds. Through this assistance, corn production from Gorontalo corn farmers proved to increase sharply from 692 thousand tons in 2016, to 1.5 million tons in 2018. Even from the total corn exports of 380 thousand tons in 2018, 113 thousand tons were produced by Gorontalo farmers. This research uses a type of qualitative research. This research aims to describe various conditions and situations of social reality that exist in society as objects of research and raise these realities to the surface as characteristics, characters, traits, models, signs, or images of conditions, situations or phenomena of solidarity and social capital of farmers. The social participation of farmers is realized from the formation of farmer groups that can be said to be part of the signification structure of farmers who are always coordinated with group members and the government so that there is an intense increase in corn exports, which indicates the government's concerns in a broader form to farmers but in the name of laws and regulations. The social solidarity of corn farmers manifested in the culture of participation of farmers in increasing corn commodity exports takes place by means of full involvement in all agropolitan program activities. The involvement has reciprocal elements or back-to-backs for farmers in the form of good crops and has an impact on their level of economic well-being. Keywords: Participation; Social; Solidarity; Farmers; Government 1. Introduction Indonesia has become a rich country in agriculture because it is supported by the government. The seriousness of the government is seen through the efforts of the agricultural modernization program that has been launched first. Although farmers need a high level of adaptation to various lifestyle changes that are a consequence of the program, the results still delight the Indonesian peasantry. This indicates the participation of farmers in the modernization program. So the farmers become an important part as implementers. Although the country uses a top-down and highly centralistic development system, it is fully responsible for the development of nations and communities. In its development, the change of state leadership (president) also affects the system of government which also has an impact on various nation-building programs. Every time the president changes, then the president's policy changes. The government system that is 'Top-Down' and has dominated for decades has shifted to 'Down to Top'. The state is no longer the power that dominates the state but the people who become the power. It is the people who determine their own lives, while the state only facilitates it through development.