Agricultural Mechanization and Socio-Economic Factors Shaping Adoption in the Food Estate Area of Central Kalimantan, Indonesia

Abstract

Agricultural mechanization plays an important role in encouraging the success of agricultural businesses, especially in boosting rice productivity in the food estate area of Central Kalimantan, Indonesia. In order to realize the food estate program, the government supports the provision of agricultural mechanization to increase agricultural production and achieve agricultural modernization. The aim of this research is to determine the level of adoption of agricultural mechanization technology and determine the factors related to the level of adoption of agricultural mechanization technology in food estate areas. This research was conducted in Pulang Pisau Regency and Kapuas Regency, Central Kalimantan Province, which are the locations of the food estate program in 2020. The design used in this study is quantitative. The method employed is a survey conducted through interviews and questionnaires as instruments to collect data from 394 rice farmers involved in the food estate program. Data collection was conducted from July to December 2023.The results of the data were analysed using Structural Equation Modelling-Partial Least Square (SEM-PLS). The study results found that hand tractors (96,19%), power threshers (68,53%), combine harvesters (31,47%), and four-wheeled tractors (17,77%), were the agricultural machines most widely used in the Central Kalimantan food estate area. Meanwhile, the rice transplanter planting tool is a machine that is rarely used by rice farmers in the research location. The findings also revealed that farmers' decisions to adopt agricultural mechanization were significantly influenced by farmers characteristic, socio-cultural conditions, farming characteristics, and innovation characteristics. Meanwhile, the institutional conditions of farmers and agricultural extension services do not influence the adoption of agricultural mechanization. Therefore, this study recommends that the government focus on improving access to infrastructure leading to agricultural land that can be traversed by agricultural machinery. Additionally, specific agricultural machinery designed for swampy areas should be developed. Moreover, policy initiatives should be implemented to facilitate farmers in acquiring agricultural machinery.