The State Of The Rural Social Sciences In Indonesia The Need For Supplemental Training And Research

In one numerically small but vital area of training and education. Indonesia may be facing a crisis of considerable importance. The physical scientists are in the midst of creating an agricultural revolution, but the success of the revolution depends upon economic and social factors only dimly preceived and understood. Agricultural yields in Indonesia are only a fraction of what they could be through technology and methods which is are economically sound and already avaiilaible. In one way this relative retardation may be a blessing in disguise since it is not clear that the country's social and economic institutions could cope with the revolutionary changes brought about, say, by producing the nation's entire rice needs on one half the current amount of sawah. As with any revolution, these "second and third generation" developments may create totally new and dangerous problems and ones which require a whole new class of skills and understandings if they are to be successfully surmounted.