Functional Recentralization of Agricultural Extension in Local Government Governance: Implementation of Presidential Instruction No. 3 of 2025 in Balikpapan City

Abstract

The recentralization of agricultural extension personnel through Presidential Instruction No. 3 of 2025 has altered the distribution of authority among the central government, local governments, and extension workers in Indonesia’s agricultural governance system. This study examines the implementation of this institutional change in Balikpapan City and identifies the conditions under which stronger national command can remain responsive to local contexts. A descriptive case-study design based on mixed evidence was employed, with qualitative analysis as the dominant approach and descriptive statistics as supporting evidence. Primary data were obtained from 32 respondents, comprising 13 agricultural extension workers, 10 farmers, and 9 officials of the Balikpapan Food Security, Agriculture and Fisheries Office, through instruments combining closed- and open-ended questions. The primary evidence was triangulated with regulations, official statistics, and academic literature. Analysis was structured around the six policy implementation variables proposed by Van Meter and Van Horn. The findings show that recentralization has produced a hybrid governance arrangement: administrative authority has become more centralized, while implementation continues to depend substantially on local capacity and coordination. Eight of nine local officials perceived the transfer of personnel expenditure to the national budget as fiscally relieving. Coordination between extension workers and local government remained relatively strong, with a mean score of 4.38/5, while 12 of 13 extension workers reported no disruption to local government programs. The most consistent challenge was agroecological mismatch: 61.5% of extension workers and 60% of farmers had encountered commodity instructions or recommendations considered poorly suited to local conditions. Extension workers and farmers also demonstrated adaptive agency through locally adjusted technologies and locally initiated proposals. The study concludes that the effectiveness of recentralization depends not only on stronger central command but also on the institutional capacity to incorporate local evidence and knowledge into implementation. A two-pillar model combining Evidence-Based Central Coordination and Context-Sensitive Best-Fit Implementation is proposed under the principle of central command, locally adaptive implementation .