Pengaruh Kemitraan terhadap Efisiensi dan Pendapatan Petani Kentang di Kecamatan Pangalengan Kabupaten Bandung

Abstract

Potato is one of the superior vegetable commodities in Indonesia, making it to be the third biggest producer of potato in the country after chili pepper and cabbage. The share of potato production in 2009 was 10.20 percent out of the national vegetable production. One of the potato production centers in Indonesia is West Java with the production share of 27.25 in 2009 out of the national potato production. Bandung Regency was a potato production center in West Java Province in 2009 with the production share of more than 57 percent. The average potato productivity in Bandung Regency in 2009 was 20.35 tons/ha. This productivity was still lower than that in Brazil as a developing country and with tropical climate like Indonesia. The low potato productivity in Bandung Regency was probably due to the relatively low efficiency. Improving efficiency will not only increase potato production but also can lower the production cost and increase farmer income. PT. Indofood Fritolay Makmur (PT. IFM) is a potato processing company which has conducted a partnership program with potato farmers in Pangalengan Subdistrict since 1997 by providing farmers with certified superior potato seed, giving training to all heads of farmer groups so that they are good at potato seed breeding, and buying the potato produced by the farmers who join the partnership with the price set at the time of seed delivery. The aim of this research was to determine the technical, allocative, and economic efficiency level and the factors influencing the technical, allocative, and economic inefficiency level, to analyze the effects of partnership on technical, allocative, and economic efficiency, and to describe the difference between potato farmers with a partnership system and those without it. For that purpose, this study used primary data of 80 potato farmers using Stochastic Frontier Analysis, SFA). The research result showed that the average technical, allocative, and economic efficiency of farmers was 0.71, 0.51 and 0.36. This means that potato farmers have technically been efficient, but they have not been allocatively and economically efficient. It is also showed that partnership reduced farmers’ allocative inefficiency. Otherwise, it increased the technical and economic inefficiencies. Another dummy variable of potato cultivation training and duration as a member of farmers club lowered allocative and economic inefficiencies statistically. This showed that the three determining factors should be given a special attention to increase farmers’ income. The results implied that the average technical and economic efficiencies and income of potato farmers who had partnership with PT. IFM were lower statistically than those who had no partnership but the average allocative efficiency of potato farmers who had partnership with PT. IFM was higher statistically than those who had no partnership.