INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SCIENTIFIC & TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH VOLUME 9, ISSUE 12, DECEMBER 2020 ISSN 2277-8616 77 IJSTR©2020 www.ijstr.org Empowerment Strategy Of Rice Farmers In Banten Province Asih Mulyaningsih, Suherna, Gugun Gunawan, Yoyon Haryanto Abstract: Empowerment is one of the key factors in promoting farmers as the main actors in the management of rice farming. The objectives of the research were to: (1) analyze rice farmer's empowerment level; (2) analyze influencing factors rice farmer's empowerment level; and (3) design a rice farmer's empowerment strategy. The research results could be utilized in designing a rice farmer's empowerment strategy. Field data collection had been conducted for three months, during April and June 2019. Research sites were in Pandeglang and Lebak District, Banten Province because the two districts were production centers for rice. Research samples covered 216 rice farmers. Smart PLS was applied in data analysis. The research results showed that: (1) The empowerment of farmers in Pandeglang Regency, Lebak Regency is quite high; (2) the influencing factors of rice farmer's empowerment were participation, empowerment intensity, supports for physical and socio-economic environments, farmer's farmer's characteristics, division of labor patterns; and (3) strategy formulation for empowering rice farmers were to improve participation in farming activity planning, implementation, and evaluation. The rice farmer's empowerment strategies were divided into two strategies namely short-term strategies and long-term strategies. The farmers' empowerment in rice farming of Pandeglang and Lebak Districts could be improved by involving them in their farming activity planning, implementation, and evaluation. Index Terms: Banten Province, Empowerment, Rice, Strategy ——————————  —————————— 1. INTRODUCTION The agricultural sector is a food producer that is needed by all Indonesian people. The main agricultural actors are farmers and farm laborers, most of whom live in rural areas. The number is very large and in general, the level of welfare of the farmers lags behind other groups in society. The number and percentage of smallholders during the 1993-2003 period increased from 9.6 million (45.3%) to 14.1 million (56.4%) with a constant average land area of 0.79 ha [1] . Therefore, although the relative contribution of the agricultural sector in the formation of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is getting lower, the role of this sector is very strategic, both in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Sustainable Development Goals is a document that will become a reference in the framework of development and negotiation of countries in the world. The SDGs concept continues the development concept of the Millennium Development Goals where the concept ended in 2015. The Sustainable Development Goals place society at the center of development. This means that society is the ultimate goal, as well as an active actor in development. One of the keys to the success of achieving the SDGs lies in the performance of the agricultural sector. This is a logical implication of the following conditions: 1) the majority of the poor live in developing countries whose main livelihood depends on the agricultural sector; 2) there is a very close relationship between poverty and food insecurity; while the food producer is the agricultural sector; 3) the agricultural sector is very vulnerable to climate change so that the future of food security is very much determined by the success of the agricultural sector in its adaptation and mitigation to climate change. Starting in 2016, the 2015–2030 Sustainable Development Goals officially replaced the 2000–2015 Millennium Development Goals. Sustainable Development Goals contains 17 transformative goals that were agreed upon and applicable to all nations without exception. One of the goals is to eradicate hunger and achieve sustainable agriculture, in line with development priorities in Indonesia and following the 2015–2019 Medium Term Development Plan Program. The Ministry of Agriculture has set 11 policy directions for agricultural development for 2015-2019, namely: 1) increasing food security (rice, corn, soybeans, sugar cane, cattle, chilies, and shallots that have an impact on the economy; 2) development export and import substitution commodities as well as bioenergy raw material supply commodities; 3) increasing the competitiveness of agricultural products through product and process standardization, increasing supply chains, quality and food safety; 4) developing infrastructure (land, water, facilities and infrastructure) and agro-industry in rural areas as the basis or foundation for sustainable bio industry development; 5) reorientation of producing one type of product into multi products (main products, bio-products, by- products, products from waste, zero waste and others; 6) cluster or area development in certain areas leveraging the achievement of rational targets; 7) seed systems/ nurseries, farmer protection, farmer institutions, innovation and dissemination technology, extension and agricultural quarantine system policies; 8) supporting thematic programs, such as gender mainstreaming, employment, acceleration of disadvantaged areas, special areas and border areas; 9) adaptation and mitigation of climate change as well as post- natural disaster management; 10) fertilizer subsidies by reducing single fertilizers and increasing compound fertilizer subsidies, subsidizing organic fertilizer development activities, subsidizing strengthening seed / seed breeders; and 11) continuing food security credit to encourage and increase production and productivity, allocating credit ceilings according to sub-sectors to ensure the allocation of credit for food, agricultural mechanization credit to solve labor scarcity and guarantee large-scale food management, and certification of agricultural land for creditworthiness. Agricultural extension, as a community empowerment process, has the main objective that is not limited to the creation of "better farming, better business, and better living, but also to facilitate the community ————————————————  Asih Mulyaningsih, Suherna and Gugun Gunawan are senior lecture in department of agriculture, University Sultan Ageng Tirtayasa . E- mail: asihmulya@ymail.com, suherna@untirta.ac.id, gugungu73@gmail.com  Yoyon Haryanto is Senior Lecture in Polytechnic Agricultural Development Bogor. . E-mail: yoyonharyanto@gmail.com