Adoption of Agriculture Mechanization on Paddy Farmers in Indonesia: Demographic Determinants, Internet Access Influence, and The Impact of Adoption on The Yield

Abstract

This study aims to identify the demographic determinants of the agriculture mechanization adoption on paddy farmers in Indonesia and the impact of internet use by farmers on the probability of being adopters. Besides, it also analyses the difference in the average paddy yield cultivated by adopters and non-adopters to determine the adoption impact on agricultural productivity. We found that farmers' level of education and age significantly impacts the probability of being adopters. However, the magnitude of the age impact tends to be diminishing with the increase in age. The probability of being adopters is affected significantly by gender, region, and the farm scale. Male farmers tend to be more likely of being adopters than their female counterparts. Farmers in Java have a slightly higher probability of being adopters than farmers outside Java. Adopting agriculture mechanization also has a positive association with the farm scale, where the larger the farm scale, the more likely the farmers are to be adopters. Our study also found that internet use positively and significantly impacts the farmers' probability of being adopters. Moreover, our study also confirmed a strong indication that the mechanization adoption affects the paddy yield positively indicated by the higher paddy yield average of adopters than non-adopters. Therefore, boosting the adoption of mechanization must be done, for instance, by attracting young people with high education to get involved in agriculture and up-scaling the implementation of tools and agricultural machinery assistance facilitated by the government.