MODEL OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT OF SMALLHOLDERS IN RIAU PROVINCENurhamlin, Aslim Rasyad, Zulkarnain and SuwondoAbstract Natural rubber has countless significant roles in human life. Rubber plants have the ability to maintain natural functions (they serve as carbon producers, conservationists of land and water, and habitats for wildlife) and they also produce many added values in terms of social and economy for rubber farmers or smallholders as well as become sources of their living and income. The price of natural rubber in the international market has significantly dropped in the last one decade; leaving many rubber farmers or smallholders to live in poverty. Many programs to elevate the prosperity of rubber farmers or smallholders have been created and applied by the government of Indonesia but none of the programs has been deemed successful according to the analysis results of Multi-Dimensional Scaling (MDS), the sustainable ecological index (52.95%), technological sustainability (62.35%), economical sustainability (60.18%), social sustainability (53.62%), and institutional sustainability (20.73%). The institutional management of rubber farmers is highly expected to increase the development of rubber farmers so that each and every one of them may have high competitiveness which in turn will sustainably improve their prosperity in the future. |