Strategic Behavior of Small-Scale Farmers toward Sustainability of Rice Farming: A study of Entrepreneurial skill to Farming Performance

Abstract

Farm households are the most basic socio-economic and decision-making unit in rural areas. Their livelihood strategies will determine how they exploit natural resources and the efficiency of their use. In general, on-farm and off-farm activities are essential components of livelihood strategies that farmers often adopt to increase their incomes. This research aims to understand the most striking factors related to farmers’ entrepreneurship. The study was conducted with a quantitative approach and the location was in Wuluhan Village, Jember Regency Indonesia. Consisting of 50 respondents, this research used Structural Equation Modeling based on WARP-PLS 7.0 to analyze the prominent traits that lead to the best farming performance. While the findings show that most of the variables were significant, it can be clearly seen that initiative was the best trait that describes the farmers in the research area. Thus, in the future, dynamics, leadership and collective bargaining can be developed more in shaping their readiness to face the challenges in sustainable rice farming.