Analysis of Garlic Farmers' Welfare in Buleleng Regency, Bali, Indonesia

Abstract

High production costs, a lack of institutional roles for farmers, a lack of farmer competence, and limited use of agricultural support technologies, such as information technology (IT), all contribute to low garlic production. The high level of garlic imports into Indonesia makes it difficult for farmers to sell their produce because their prices are higher than that of imported garlic. This impacts the money farmers can earn from growing garlic. This study investigated the roles of the government, farmer institutions, and farmer competencies in garlic farmers' ability to adopt IT, their farming performance, and overall welfare in Buleleng Regency. The study's research design was quantitative and employed structural equation modeling (SEM). It included 196 garlic farmers from Buleleng Regency as participants. The findings revealed that the government, farmer institutions, and farmer competencies all had a direct and significant impact on garlic farmers' adoption of IT, as well as on their performance and welfare in Buleleng Regency. Also, the adoption of IT and farming performance have the potential to mediate the roles of government, farmer institutions, and farmer competencies in determining welfare. The study also discovered that farming performance was capable of mediating the effects of government involvement, farmer institutions, farmer competencies, and the capacity to embrace IT on the well-being of garlic farmers in Buleleng Regency.