Fertilizer Application, Climate Change and Rice Production in Rural Java

Abstract

Increasing rice production has always been the target of the Indonesian government in maintaining food security. Fertilizer application is a widely accepted strategy to sustain or improve rice production. The use of fertilizers can also have an impact on climate change and decrease soil fertility. This study aims to examine whether the fertilizer application and climate change affect rice production in rural Java. This study applies Ordinary Least Square (OLS) model to analyze the primary data collected from 4 main rice producer areas in Central Java and East Java Province. The results show that the current seed use and organic fertilizer have positive impact on rice production. The current use of pesticide and chemical fertilizer has negative effect. Rainfall shock as a proxy of climate change does not have any effect to rice production. This is due to farmers in the study area already having mitigation strategy to avoid the negative impact of climate change, particularly rainfall shock.