Bima is a regency located in the eastern part of West Nusa Tenggara (NTB) province, which acts as a gateway and liaison with the Eastern Region of Indonesia (KTI). The role of a gateway and liaison with KTI is made possible by the availability of adequate land, sea, and air transportation infrastructure. From 2006-2011, the Bima Regency economy grew positively except in 2010. Figure 1 shows that the regency's economy in 2008 and 2009, exceeded the national average growth.

Figure 1.

Bima Regency, NTB, and National Economic Growth (%) from 2006-2011 (Source: Central Bureau of Statistics 2007-2012).

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Table 1 shows that the agriculture sector still dominates the formation of the Bima Regency GRDP despite its declining trend. From 2006-2009, it contributed above 50 percent, while in 2010 and 2011, it decreased slightly below 50 percent.

In general, the Bima Regency expenditure increased from 2007 to 2012, although there was no change in 2009 and 2010, as shown in Figure 2. The data in Figure 2 is a real number, 2012 data is a budget, not a realization.

Figure 2.

Regional expenditure (Billions) of Bima Regency in 2007 – 2012 (Database of the University of Mataram Population and Development Research Center (P2KP) Processed by the PERA Team from the APBD).

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The allocation of the health sector to total expenditure is significant, with a yearly average above 50%, as shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3.

Total, Health expenditure (Billions), and proportion of health expenditures (%).

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Furthermore, the health sector is still dominated by employee expenditure, followed by capital as well as goods and services, as shown in Figure 4.

Figure 4.

Proportion of health sector expenditures according to economic classification (Billions).

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Meanwhile, the proportion of agriculture expenditure is smaller than the health sector, with an average below 40%, as shown in Figure 5.

Figure 5.

Proportion of agriculture sector expenditures to the total expenditure of Bima Regency APBD (Master table of APBD of Mataram University; Research and Development Policy Center (P2KP) UNHAS, 2012 processed).

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Figure 6 shows that the agriculture sector's performance continues to increase yearly despite the allocation of a percentage below 40% and smaller than the health sector.

Figure 6.

Production of leading commodities in the agriculture sector, Bima Regency (2007-2011).

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Agriculture is a significant sector in the Bima Regency economy based on its GRDP contribution. Others with a significant contribution are the trade, hotel and restaurant, service, as well as transportation and communication sectors. The contribution of these three sectors to the formation of GRDP consistently increased from 2006-2010, as shown in Table 1. Meanwhile, the regional expenditure of the Bima Regency increased by an average of 6 percent from 2007-2011, with the majority used for basic services, as shown in Figure 2. In 2007 and 2012, the total regional expenditure was Rp. 632 billion and Rp. 849 billion, respectively, with 60% allocated to fulfill the needs of basic services education, health, and infrastructure development, while less than 40% was assigned to agriculture.

Bima Government in the 2011-2015 RPJMD, the health and education sectors are top development priorities. In the third mission of the RPJMD, is to improve the quality of human resources and population by enhancing the quality of basic services. This means that the health and education sectors are development priorities, which ultimately create positive impacts on others, including agriculture.

However, the proportion of the health sector to total regional expenditure is still relatively small and fluctuates yearly. The proportion of health to total regional expenditure is still far below the 15% expectation rate of the World Health Organization (WHO). From 2007 to 2011, the health sector was dominated by personnel expenditure, with an average of 60.3%. Furthermore, the proportion of capital to health expenditure averaged 23.91%, while fluctuating between 17.8% and 31.99%. The proportion of goods and services expenditures fluctuated from 11.28% (2009) to 21.47% (2007), with an average of 15.8%. From 2007-2011, the health sector expenditure was directed towards financing public health programs by 11.84%. Other dominant infrastructures that need to be improved include psychiatric, lung, and eye hospitals (29.87%), procurement and repair of facilities supporting public health centers (19.82%), as well as the Health Service and the Regional Public Hospital (RSUD) (5.78%). These three programs use a total budget of 55.47%, while the health service improvement programs for JAMKESMAS, JAMKESDA, and ASKES was 4.91%.

On the other hand, only 0.07% of the budget was allocated to improve the degree of public health and Community Empowerment. It is a fact that access to public health services (PHS) will reduce the reduction in public economic financing.9 In addition, many contributing factors influence access to PHS, including personal barriers, financial barriers, and organizational barriers.4 in transforming our world by tackling multiple challenges humankind is facing to ensure well-being, economic prosperity, environmental protection10 and environmental health awareness.11

Although the education and infrastructure of the health sector are prioritized in the allocation of regional expenditure, agriculture remains a strategic sector in the regional development of the Bima Regency. Efforts to develop this industry are strategic for improving the regional economy and the welfare of the majority of the population. Table 1 shows that the agriculture sector contributes an average of 50% to the GRDP and 60% to employment opportunities with a slight yearly downward trend. Although there was a decrease in the growth rate of the agriculture sector in 2010, it is the most significant source of the region's economy.

Table 6 shows the increasing production of 5 leading commodities: corn, beef, seaweed, shallots, and milkfish. This conveys an important message that the agriculture sector cannot be neglected in the economy due to its role in acceleration and expansion of the Indonesian economy, making “inclusive business” in agriculture for the economy,12 global spread in environmental conservation for health and agriculture. Creating rural livelihood diversification,13 for sustainable livelihood itself, solution for national food security,14 and in turn preparing farmers to get in Asian Economic Community.15 Production of the leading commodities in the Bima Regency increased from 2007-2011.

The harvested corn area significantly increased, from 6,623ha in 2007 to 11,224ha in 2011, with a rise in shallots from 7,019ha in 2007 to 7,682ha in 2013. In the same period, the average increase in corn, shallots, milkfish, and salt production was 36, 2, 17, and 126 percent per year, respectively. Similarly, the cattle population increased with an average of 16 percent per year, with a rapid rise in seaweed from 131 tons in 2007 to 31,633 tons in 2011. This implies that linkages between agriculture and health sectors are necessary to accelerate development.

Despite contributing significantly to the GRDP and regional employment opportunities, the agriculture sector received a small proportion of expenditure and declined from 2007-2011. During this period, the expenditure covered several SKPDs, such as food crop agriculture, fisheries, and marine affairs, plantations, and animal husbandry. In nominal values, regional expenditure for the agriculture sector decreased from Rp. 38.07 billion in 2007 to Rp. 32.66 billion in 2011. Furthermore, the proportion also decreased from 6.02% in 2007 to 4.08% in 2011. This is smaller compared to the health sector, which is dominated by an employee. From 2007-2011, the proportion of direct expenditure to the total agriculture sector ranged between 62.05% and 57.73%.

This reminds the government that the health sector is also important. It is a fact that mainly research trapping into health disparities issues such as the urban-area needs to be addressed.16 Therefore, an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recommends full rights and protection.16 This is not without a clear reason. Health and economy are two goals of sustainable development (SDGs) that are closely related to each other. The SDGs have 17 goals and 169 targets that are expected to be achieved by 2030. Health is the third target, while the economy is the eighth target.17 The same thing should happen in the agriculture sector.

The sector assigns to avoid poverty and hunger. From 2007-2011, expenditure on food crops and the horticulture sub-sector was dominated by the extension agent empowerment program (25%), to increase production (23%), welfare of farmers (17%), and performance reporting system (16%). Meanwhile, the expenditure on agribusiness development programs and yield marketing increased added value and business competitiveness by 1%, respectively. In the same period, livestock, maritime and fishery sub-sector was dominated by programs for increasing livestock production (22%), office administration (21%), development of fisheries infrastructure and resources (17%), and others (24%). Meanwhile, expenditure on processing center development and marketing were allocated 0.1%, respectively. In addition, the agriculture sector will strengthen the health sector in terms of nutrition and environmental health.