Development of sustainable agricultural indicators at provincial levels in Indonesia: A Case study of rice

Abstract

The sustainability of the agricultural sector in Indonesia, especially the food crop subsector is currently faced with serious threats. It is necessary to develop indicators that can be used to measure the sustainability of the rice farming system in Indonesia so that it can be used as a reference for formulating agricultural development strategies to maintain its sustainability. This research focuses on developing indicators to measure the level of sustainability of rice agriculture at the provincial level in Indonesia. From the results of the literature review and focus group discussion (FGD), a list of indicator nominations was obtained which were then analyzed by Principal Component Analysis (PCA). Based on the results of the PCA, four principal components consisting of sixteen indicators with a total variance value explained at 73.84% can be used as a reference to assess the sustainability of rice farming at the provincial level, namely: farmer exchange rate, rice productivity, ratio of irrigated land, cropping index, crop failure because of drought, population growth rate, access to financing services, chemical fertilizers, ratio of young farmers, village road access, agricultural extension program, local resource utilization, field extension staff, location-specific technology, extension institutions and farmer groups grade qualification. The list of indicators can be used as a reference for evaluating the sustainability of rice agriculture at the provincial levels in Indonesia.