Transformasi Pola Bertani pada Masyarakat Transmigrasi di Kabupaten Keerom

Apner Krei (Universitas Cenderawasih)
Sonya Martha Kawer (Jurusan Antropologi, Fakultas Ilmu Sosial dan Ilmu Politik, Universitas Cenderawasih)

SEIKAT: Jurnal Ilmu Sosial, Politik dan Hukum
Vol. 5 No. 5 (2026): SEIKAT: Jurnal Ilmu Sosial, Politik dan Hukum

This article examines the transformation of farming patterns among transmigrant communities in Arso and Skanto Districts, Keerom Regency, Papua, an area developed since the early 1980s through food-crop transmigration and oil palm Nucleus Estate Smallholder (PIR) schemes. Using a qualitative descriptive approach, data were collected in July 2026 through observation, in-depth interviews, documentation, and literature study, and analysed through six dimensions of farming transformation. The findings show three phases: food crops during initial adaptation, oil palm dominance that raised household welfare, and horticultural diversification after palm productivity declined from around 2012. The shift was driven by rising household needs, ageing palms, high production costs, better infrastructure, growing market demand, and government programmes. It changed the meaning of land, farming knowledge, household livelihoods, and relations with Indigenous Papuans, who selectively adopted horticultural techniques through everyday interaction while retaining customary farming practices. Farming transformation in Keerom is therefore cyclical rather than linear, reflecting the adaptive capacity of farming households within an agrarian structure originally designed by the state.