Analysis of prime commodities and participation level of farmers in agricultural development of Bulukumba Regency.;

Abstract

Agriculture is an important sector in the economic system and also a basic sector mainly in South Sulawesi province and Bulukumba regency. As one of the provinces in the eastern Indonesia that acts as a national food barn, therefore since 1988, the provincial government had been implemented the commodity region concepts in order to optimaze the resources utilization based on the characteristics of each region. Bulukumba regency is one of the regions that possess not only various geographic area such as highlands and lowlands but also act as the basic capital in developing many kinds of agricultural commodities. Therefore, the determination of prime commodities was importantly needed in developing this region to be more targeted and more focused so that it would be increased the local communities and region incomes. Participation level of farmers was also extremely expected in developing our prime commodities because farmers become one of the main actors in determining the yield of agricultural production. In the future, agricultural sector will be redirected into agro-industrial sector as an integration form with industrial sector. This research was generally aimed to develop the strategies for developing the sector and prime commodities and also other derivative sectors whereas on the other hand. This research was also specifically aimed to (1) identify the prime agricultural subsectors of Bulukumba regency mainly in South Sulawesi province, (2) identify the prime commodities in Bulukumba regency based on the comparative and competitive advantage and opinion from government apparatus and (3) analyze the participation level of farmers in the development of prime commodities. The analysis methods employed in this study were prime subsector and prime commodities analysis, analytical hierarchy process (AHP) and participation level of farmers analysis. Prime subsector and prime commodities analysis were conducted using location quotient (LQ) analysis that acts as a comparative advantage and differential shift (DS) that acts as a competitive advantage. In this research, LQ analysis was performed using the data in the year of 2010 while DS analysis was performed using the data in the year of 2006 and 2010. AHP is a method for decision-making in order to determine the prime commodities based on the view of official government. The AHP’s criteria used in this study are: (1) natural resources, (2) farmers' preferences, (3) public policy, (4) economic contribution, (5) institutional and (6) market. Participation level of farmer analysis was performed using cross-tabulation in order to observe the relationship between inter-variables such as willingness, ability and farmers’ opportunity in participating for the development of prime commodities. Prime subsectors in Bulukumba regency are food crops, plantation crops and livestock subsectors while fisheries and forestry subsectors were only strategic in term of competitive advantage but not comparative advantage. The results showed that our agriculture sector in Bulukumba regency was a basic sector and dominant prime subsector both in term of comparative and competitive advantage so that this sector was very potential to be developed. The prime vii agricultural commodities both in term of comparative and competitive advantage in Bulukumba regency were consist of 20 commodities from all three subsectors of eminent and always present in every district. The horticultural commodities which identified as prime commodities based on the highest value of LQ and DS were banana, mango and rambutan. Based on the view of government apparatus, food crops is the prime commodities in Bulukumba regency which had been supported by the natural resources criteria and government policy. The highest participation level of farmers came from rice farmers with high willingness, ability and moderate opportunity. Peanut and corn commodities were potential to be developed with moderate participation level by supplying the infrastructure in order to help the farmers to reduce their production costs. Based on the results analysis, we can conclude that (1) prime subsectors in Bulukumba regency were food crops subsector, plantation subsector and livestock subsector, (2) Prime commodities in Bulukumba are food crops (corn and peanuts) and horticulture (bananas, mango and rambutan) and (3) the highest participation level in developing our commodity are rice farmers because they have high willingness and opportunity and modertae ability and (4) development of agriculture sector and prime commodities and derivatives sector’s in Bulukumba be driven by the development commodities like corn, peanuts, bananas, mango and rambutan. Strategies that can be applied to the use of natural resources supported by goverment policy, strenghthening partnerships and application of technology. The results of this study indicated that by determining the prime commodites and developing the prime commodities, commodity based regionalization can be used as a reference in the direction of Bulukumba regency development. Government policy in developing the agro-industrial commodities can be directed into agro-horticultural sector that supported from production side.