ABSTRACT
The nation of Indonesia, with its three thousand islands, provides a diverse range of topographical and climatic conditions for the growing of a wide variety of agricultural crops. The problem of poverty and declining welfare levels within the rural sector, particularly and most primarily on Java, has been magnified by the inability of the agricultural economy, and more explicitly, the food crop sector, to grow at a rate equal to the needs of feeding a large and growing population. Rural roads and irrigation networks fell into a serious state of disrepair, and a condition of general institutional inertia came to prevail over the rural sector as most government agencies lacked the necessary funds to provide even the most basic administrative services within the rural economy. A review of sub-district performance in the administration of the Padat Karya effort reveals that a number of obstacles have been encountered in achieving the intended purpose of this rural development program.
