The Omnibus Law on Job Creation and its potential implications for rural youth and future farming in Indonesia

Abstract

Indonesian rural youth face challenges accessing farmland and sustaining an agricultural livelihood while their labour is not necessarily absorbed by other sectors. In that context, the Omnibus Law on Job Creation (Law 11/2020) promises to liberalise trade and investment across multiple sectors, including agriculture and food security. Combining legal research and political economy approaches to youth and agrarian challenges, we identify amendments to legislation that reduce safeguards for the environment, workers' and farmers' rights and their livelihoods. If fully implemented, the legislative amendments could further narrow youth's options both for secure formal work and futures in farming by accelerating the expansion of infrastructure, industrial plantations and extractive industries that utilise low-wage labour and huge areas of land. This exposes inconsistencies in the government's approach to increase future food security by promoting intensification of agriculture and attracting youth to farming, while enabling agro- and resource extraction that absorbs land yet offers limited and precarious employment prospects.