Diversifying into more complex ventures required changes in the basic transmigration model. Under the central scheme still in effect for communities engaged in rice cultivation a family became part of a "standard" settlement village of about 500 families, each of whom received a two-room, 36-square meter house and two hectares (nearly five acres) of land, an amount one family can cultivate without assistance from machinery or livestock. The land was divided into a 0.25 hectare plot for a house and small garden. Two-thirds of a hectare within one kilometer of the house was for the production of subsistence food and income for the family. A second hectare within two kilometers of the house was to provide an income beyond subsistence.

In the plantation model known as the "nucleus estate" transmigrants continue to receive a house and garden and suitable amount of land, but their land is part of a plantation. They work with other transmigrants on the estate, receiving cash for their labor. These nucleus estate settlements may serve as many as 3,000 families.

While most of these plantations, which require considerably more capital to establish than a rice-growing settlement, were financed by the Government and run as cooperatives, the Government has been actively encouraging private investors to establish plantations for transmigrants.

In addition to the land and house, each transmigrant family whether government- sponsored or spontaneous receives assistance for about five years. The assistance includes clothes, utensils, farming implements, seeds, fertilizer and enough food to tide each family over until the first crop is harvested usually 12 to 18 months. Extension advice and assistance are also provided. Depending on the circumstances, livestock, feed and credit assistance also may be provided. In addition, settlements have school facilities, medical clinics and mosques, temples and/or churches.