The Rubber Farm Household's Behavior on Economic Activities to Achieve Family Food Security

Abstract

The aims of this study is to analyze the influencing factors of farm household economic behaviour in an effort to achieve their families’ food security in association with some productive activities. This research used secondary data (especially cross section), analyzed by descriptive and econometric analysis (simultaneous equation) and the estimation was solved by two stage least squares method (2SLS). The result concludes that there are some sources of family income, the rubber farm is the main source. Mostly, their family income are higher than their family expenditure. By allocating all family labors and other resources, the farm households can fulfill their primary needs, especially food consumption to achieve their family food security. Estimation of simultaneous equation has proved that economic behavior of rubber farm households in labor supply, production and consumption are interact each other, in other words one decision will influence another decision. Family purchasing power can be improved by optimizing the allocation of family resources for productive activities. The farm household should not rely merely on rubber farm income due to the unpredicted rubber price and low bargaining position in determining the product price. Any government intervention should consider this economic behavior in order to generate proper policy to achieve family food security.