COMPARING RICE FARMING APPERANCE OF DIFFERENT AGROECOSYSTEM IN SOUTH SUMATRA, INDONESIA

M. Umar Harun, Elisa Wildayana, Imron Zahri, Sabaruddin, Dessy Adriani

Abstract: Ricefield farming is carried out by farmers on various land typologies, and the most common ricefields are called as technical irrigation, tidal and fresh water swamp land. This study aimed to analyze the existing condition and utilization of land resources owned by farmers, land productivity and farm household income on different land typology. Besides analyzing the relationship between economic and non-economic variables in a rice farming system, this research is also enriched with analysis on different land typology. The results showed that ricefields showing good to less irrigated system are technical irrigation; tidal (its water system influenced by tidal water) and fresh water swamp (strongly determined by rainfall and river water)respectively. The average area of tidal ricefields cultivated by farmers (2.88 ha) is higher than fresh water swamp ricefields (0.88 ha) and technical irrigation (0.56 ha). Most of farmers have increased their owned area by buying new land. The number of gurem farmers (cultivated land less than 0.5 ha) in technical irrigation ricefi elds were more than gurem farmers in other ricefields. The better ricefields are technical irrigation, the better cultivation techniques are applied and the higher ropping index was found, the better the productivity level of ricefields was achieved. The productivity of technical irrigation ricefields was not much different from the tidal ricefields, but much higher than Fresh Water Swamp ricefields. Rice farming in tidal areas is more mechanically cultivated, which has caused ability of farmers to cultivate wider land and more efficient rice farming. Income of farmers describing economic efficiency in tidal areas was higher than those of technical irrigation and fresh water swamp farmers. The higher household income was determined, the greater income contribution from on-farm activities was found. The greater income from off-farm activities was earned, and the less number of poor farmers was identified.

Keywords: farm size; income; land typology; productivity; rice

Date published: 2019-04-09