Way Out or Way In? The Poverty Trap Facing Small Farmers

[ENGLISH]This article is a reflective essay written by Sutrisno Lamin, founder of a free boarding school (pesantren) and a grassroots companion of marginalized farmer groups in Indonesia’s forest-edge regions. Based on firsthand experience, it explores how various state interventions — particularly credit schemes and market-driven programs — often fail to break the cycle of rural poverty and sometimes deepen it. The author proposes a systemic alternative built around local resilience: commodity zoning, small-scale downstream processing, shelf-life technology, farmer-university partnerships, and AI-supported innovation in circular bioeconomy. Keywords: small farmers, poverty trap, rural Indonesia, agricultural credit, circular economy, grassroots innovation, food security, bioeconomy, AI for agriculture --- [BAHASA INDONESIA]Artikel ini merupakan esai reflektif dari Sutrisno Lamin, pendiri pesantren gratis dan pendamping kelompok tani miskin di kawasan pinggiran hutan Indonesia. Berdasarkan pengalaman langsung, tulisan ini menyoroti bagaimana berbagai intervensi negara — khususnya skema kredit dan pendekatan berbasis pasar — sering gagal memutus jerat kemiskinan petani kecil, bahkan terkadang memperparahnya. Penulis menawarkan pendekatan alternatif berbasis ketahanan lokal, seperti penetapan komoditas unggulan wilayah, hilirisasi mikro, teknologi penyimpanan sederhana, kolaborasi dengan perguruan tinggi, serta inovasi pangan berbasis AI dan ekonomi sirkular.