What Should the Government Do to Improve the Welfare of Rice Farmers?

Rice prices in Indonesia have continued to rise in recent months. However, many people believe that the welfare of rice farmers remains low.

According to a Kompas Research and Development (Litbang Kompas) survey, 64.2% of respondents assessed that rice farmers are generally still considered poor. Meanwhile, 32.9% of respondents considered rice farmers to be comfortably off, and 1.8% considered them prosperous.

So, what should the government do to improve the welfare of rice farmers?

The Litbang Kompas survey notes that almost half, or 40.7%, of respondents believe that the government needs to ensure the availability of subsidized fertilizers.

"The problem of subsidized fertilizer scarcity has become a public concern because it occurred throughout 2023 and continues to this day," said Kompas Litbang researcher Yohanes Mega in his survey report, as quoted from Kompas.id, Tuesday (5/3/2024).

"The use of chemical fertilizers has become very popular among farmers, and non-organic fertilizers are gradually being abandoned. Dependence on chemical fertilizers directly affects the increasingly expensive production costs," he said.

Next, 26.5% of respondents believe the government needs to provide assistance with agricultural infrastructure such as farming tools, land, and production machinery.

Other important priorities for the government to improve the welfare of rice farmers, according to respondents, are providing financial assistance (18.6%), limiting imported rice products (10%), and shortening the paddy sales chain (2.6%).

Some also believe the government needs to promote farmer welfare programs and encourage low production costs, as shown in the graph above.

"Policies that favor local rice farmers still need to be considered by the government, instead of only focusing on controlling rice prices in the market," said Yohanes.

"The decision to massively import rice has eased public concerns about rice stocks in the market, but it clearly does not favor farmers," he added.

This Litbang Kompas survey involved 512 respondents randomly selected using a stratified systematic sampling method in 38 Indonesian provinces.

Data collection was conducted from February 26-28, 2024, through telephone interviews. The survey's margin of error is approximately 4.33%, and the confidence level is 95%, under conditions of simple random sampling.