The effect of COVID-19 outbreak on the competitive and comparative advantages of rice production in West Java, Indonesia

Abstract

Food security is one of the keys to success in overcoming problems arising impact of the COVID-19 outbreak. Attention to the paddy production in West Java is imperative. This paper aimed to discuss the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the competitiveness of rice production in West Java by using two indicators of Policy Analysis Matrix (PAM), namely Private Cost Ratio (PCR) and Domestic Resource Cost Ratio (DRC). The data used is from the National Panel of Farmers (PATANAS) survey data for wetland rice agro-ecosystem in West Java, with 144 households of rice farmer respondents. The results show that the COVID-19 outbreak harms the competitiveness of rice production, and it takes three years for recovery to be a competitive advantage and more than five years for comparative advantage. At the private and social prices of GKP at the farm level equal to the GPP 2020, rice production in West Java will lose its competitive advantage starting in 2022, while the comparative advantage of rice production in West Java continues to decline until 2024. This study has three policy implications: the first eliminating disruption of the distributions of agricultural inputs and outputs. The second is striving to increase the use of machinery and equipment to secure the risk of yield loss during cultivation, harvest time, and post-harvest handling at the farm level. The third is selecting the farmers who have high capability in competitive and comparative advantages as a model for fostering competitiveness improvement for farmers with lower abilities.