Determination of Effectiveness and Efficiency of Production Factors in Sweet Potato Farming in Lamongan, Indonesia

Abstract

Food crops have a strategic role in agricultural development, covering food security growth, opening up employment opportunities, and income sources in regional and national economies. This research aims to determine the relationship patterns of sweet potato farming production factors. This research utilized a quantitative approach with the survey method. The data were obtained through questionnaires, and the sampling method used a census of 348 respondent farmers in six sweet potato center villages. The Maximum Probability Estimation frontier 4.1 method was employed to calculate the technical efficiency of sweet potato farming. The results showed that the production factors significant at the trust level of 99 percent, 90 percent, and positive value for sweet potato production in Lamongan Regency, Indonesia, were land area production, Urea fertilizer, Phonska fertilizer, ZA fertilizer, and SP36 fertilizer. The technical efficiency attainment level of sweet potato farming was very high, indicating that sweet potato farming in the research was efficient, with an average technical efficiency of 0.90 percent. The achievement level of allocative efficiency on sweet potato farming was relatively low, implying that sweet potato farming was inefficient, with an average localized efficiency of 0.50 percent. The economic efficiency of sweet potato farming was very low, depicting inefficient sweet potato farming, with an average economic efficiency of 0.48 percent. Therefore, sweet potato farmers must optimize land use, ZA, Urea, SP36, and Phonska to produce sweet potatoes optimally to support food security.