"If there is a long drought, farmers can only plant and harvest rice once a year." said Mr Christiono Riyadi, 

Kemadang, which is in the southern area of Gunungkidul Regency, Yogyakarta Special Region Province, is a dry area. The threat with the highest risk is drought out of six threats; drought, tornado, landslide, flood, earthquake and tsunami.

Because it is located in a dry area, the agriculture carried out falls into the category of rain-fed agriculture so that agricultural products in the form of food are limited. Farmers can only plant rice once per year, corn and beans twice per year, cassava once per year, resulting in vulnerability to food needs.

If there is a drought, farming communities will experience crop failure, livestock will experience food and water shortages, which can then trigger food prices to rise and reduce family income, especially for the groups most at risk.

This is of course also a problem for the realization of food sovereignty and there is no food reserve which is really needed if a disaster occurs.

"We formed the Artha Mandiri Food Barn LUMANTAR KADANG group to initiate action to anticipate drought, especially in Kemadang Village."

Kemadang Village's Drought Anticipation Food Barn or what can be abbreviated as LUMANTAR KADANG is an innovation project of the Artha Mandiri community as a form of innovative anticipatory action to face drought disasters, especially in meeting food needs at the peak of the drought.

This drought anticipation action involves saving and borrowing foodstuffs, buying and selling agricultural products and distributing remaining business results.

Picture by Artha Mandiri, 2023

In Food Savings and Loans, such as:

1. Daily needs where each member of the food barn can borrow 40 kg of grain and be charged 2.5% interest.

2. Celebration.100 kg Grain is subject to 3% interest which can be returned 1 week after the celebration

3. For grief/disaster, each member can borrow 100 kg and can return it at any time without interest

Second, buying agricultural products from farmers by buying at a higher price from the local market, then carrying out sales holdings and then being able to get better prices and at the same time being used as food reserves and this is actually the function of the barn.

Third, the food barn provides assistance for anticipatory action for at-risk groups, older people and people with disability, which is given before a drought occurs.

"Currently there are 90 members, 30 of whom are older people and people with disability, at-risk groups, and the others are women and young people who are all working on food sovereignty."

During the long dry season like last year's El Nino, the Artha Mandiri food barn distributed 5kg of rice to 30 people from at-risk groups in Kemadang Village at 10 Padukuhan. The Artha Mandiri food barn also has a warehouse to accommodate grain purchased from members and the public, as well as to store basic deposits and mandatory deposits made by members.

"We continue to invite women, youth groups, people with disabilities and the older people to take anticipatory action in the event of a drought to support what we are doing to realize food sovereignty for the community."