| dc.description.abstract | Digital technology such information and communication technology (ICT) is
provided to be accessed for everyone, including smallholder farmers. The farmers
can obtain the information and communication technology (ICT) for augmenting
productivity and obtain higher price of the product. The household farmers have
preferred cropping horticulture commodity through producing vegetable harvest to
expectedly obtain additional income which might be increased further combining
their agribusiness with ICT. However, there were only a few researches discussing
commodity of horticulture in term of using ICT in term of vegetable commodity for
increasing productivity in the farm, decrease input or production cost, and increase
output price.
The main objective was to construct an econometric model for smallholder
farmers, focusing on how small farmers in Indonesia, particularly those involved in
perishable goods production, can leverage digital agriculture using mobile or
smartphones to enhance household income. To achieve this overarching goal, the
specific objectives of the study were as follows (1) identifying the level of digital
transformation in horticulture practice in Indonesia, (2) analysing the impact of
information and communication technology (ICT) on agricultural production, and
(3) on agricultural marketing at the household level at the household level.
This study is based on a survey and interview of the vegetable farmers using
a structured questionnaire carried out in one village in every three districts in
Indonesia, such as Cianjur, Sleman, and Malang in West Java, Yogyakarta, and East
Java Province, respectively. The data are gathered from 375 selected respondents
in their respective parts between November 2021 and March 2022. The econometric
model called Multivariate Linier Regression (MLR) model was used to assess the
heterogeneous factors affecting the likelihood of increasing household income of
vegetable smallholder.
This research followed the theory of ICT literacy adjusted with agricultural
sector. The research found that the level of Agricultural ICT literacy in Indonesia
was 2.44 of scale 4.00 indicating that the farmers have competency for using digital
technology. This novel study shows that the five categories of use of information
technology for farming and selling harvest positively impact household income,
namely (1) farmers who do not use cell phones at all, either basic mobile phones or
smartphones, (2) farmers who use basic cell phones (mobile phones or
smartphones) for phone calls and SMS purposes, (3) farmers who use smartphones
using the Whatsapp application, but do not use many applications, (4) farmers who
use smartphones by utilizing various applications for social media, and (5) farmers
v
who use smartphones by utilizing various applications both for social media
purposes or for other purposes broadly.
The results of this research have explained the complex network of
relationships in the chili agricultural sector in terms of productivity, costs, and chili
prices. This finding adds to literacy related to transformative agriculture. This
research has implications for achieving sustainable and economically viable
vegetable commodity production for small farmers in Indonesia.
Trade-offs related to increasing productivity and selling prices, as well as
reducing production costs, are inevitable. Nevertheless, these trade-offs are integral
to achieving the overarching goal of augmenting the household income of small scale farmers, which forms the central focus of this research. Subsequently, the
following discussion looks at how much the increase at household income is due to
increasing levels of ICT use among vegetable farmers, along with various related
covariates.
The study found that the variable using ICT as the main variable, the
characteristics of household, marketing, and geographical characteristics, as well as
main source information of agriculture significantly (P-value less than 0.1%) affects
farmers-household income derived from main vegetable, agriculture, and total
income with multiple R-square 69.76%, 72.35%, 72.55%, respectively and with F statistics 40.82, 35.02, 63.26, respectively.
This study collects many variables that have the potential to affect income.
The variable of types of ICT used as the main variable accompanied by the
characteristics of household, marketing, and geographical characteristics, as well as
main source information of agriculture, affects farmers' income significantly.
Farmers can gain their incremental income from main agriculture (ceteris paribus)
in the amount of IDR 132,567 from farming activity and 170,165 from selling
activity if farmers can increase each level of using ICT. | id |
