Understanding Agrarian Reform: Who Is Eligible to Receive Free Government Land?

JAKARTA — The Agrarian Reform programme is often understood as land distribution to the public. In fact, the policy has a clear mechanism and criteria on who is entitled to receive land from the state. The government has also established recipients of land in Agrarian Reform as Subjek Reforma Agraria. In other words, Subjek Reforma Agraria are individuals or groups who meet certain requirements to obtain access to ownership or utilisation of land. The provisions are laid out in Presidential Regulation (Perpres) No. 86 of 2018 on Agrarian Reform, which forms the legal basis for the programme to regulate the structure of land tenure in Indonesia.

Knowing Subjek Reforma Agraria is important. Because the Minister of Agrarian Affairs and Spatial Planning/National Land Agency (ATR/BPN) Nusron Wahid once revealed that many recipients were mis-targeted. “We must not allow, due to local political pressure, people who do not live near the site or who are not farmers to receive allocations. Especially if those who should receive are those in decile 1 and decile 2,” he asserted, quoted by Kompas.com on Friday, 6 March 2026.

Not everyone can become a recipient of land under Agrarian Reform. The Government prioritises groups with limited access to land. Based on Article 12 of Presidential Regulation No. 86 of 2018 on Agrarian Reform, several groups are prioritised as follows:

The land distributed under Agrarian Reform comes from various sources referred to as Tanah Objek Reforma Agraria (TORA). Those lands are then mapped and allocated to communities meeting the criteria as Subjek Reforma Agraria.

Recipients of Agrarian Reform must be Indonesian citizens (WNI) proven by valid demographic identity documents, such as the KTP and Kartu Keluarga.

According to Article 12 of Presidential Regulation No. 86 of 2018 on Agrarian Reform, recipients are prioritised for communities in need of land for livelihoods and business, among others: