Indonesia is a Southeast Asian country that heavily relies on rice imports. With the growing population, more agricultural lands in Indonesia are being turned into residential and industrial areas. The increase in agricultural land conversion is not balanced with progressive agricultural technology to maintain rice production. This poses a threat to food security, leaving farmers vulnerable with a low ability to adopt agricultural technology. 

A study by Ernawatiningsih et al. (2023) presents the link between the farmers’ ability to adopt information technology and the farmers’ welfare. While information technology in the agricultural sector helps speed up production processes and increase production yield, the government is supposed to prioritize the farmers’ well-being so that they can continue to produce food and provide for the country’s needs. 

The findings have shown that the higher the ability of the farmers to adopt technological advancements, the higher their ability to nurture production land and increase production yields, consequently, improving farmers’ welfare. The researchers found that farmers’ perceptions as agricultural technology users widely establishes how information technology is adopted in agriculture.

The study calls on the government for continuous training and assistance on the use of agricultural technology for farmers in remote areas. This is in hopes of increasing the farmers’ ability to adopt agricultural technology evenly across all regions of Indonesia. 

You may access the full study here.

 

Article contributed by Louise Stephanie Umali, ComDevAsia Intern

Sources: 

Ernawatiningsih, N. P. L., Budhi, M. K. S., Marhaeni, A. A. I. N., & Yuliarmi, N. N. (2023). IMPROVING FARMERS WELFARE BY ENHANCING THE ABILITY OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY ADOPTION: AN EVENT STUDY OF FOOD CRISIS’ THREAT. Journal of the Community Development in Asia, 6(1), pp. 100–109. https://doi.org/10.32535/jcda.v6i1.2067 

Sugita, A.F. (2021) Millennials Are Getting Coaxed Into the Grueling World of Indonesian Farming [Photograph].