The Study on Farmers Welfare

Abstract

The agricultural targets in Indonesia, particularly in Bali, cover farmers' welfare improvement, which is aimed to protect farmers from poverty. Some factors that may lead farmers into poverty namely: (1) The low level of technology applied; (2) The small scale of business; (3) The inefficiency of marketing system; and (4) The status of farmers who are mostly peasants. The first two factors result in a small harvest, the third factor causes farmers for receiving low prices, moreover, the fourth factor put the farmers can not make a decision but merely receiving wages. This study aims to investigate the welfare level of farmers in Denpasar based on the grade of Farmer's Term of Trade Indices, which is analyzed according to three criteria, namely farmers who own their own lands, farmers who are both peasants and owning their own lands, and farmers who are merely peasants; to investigate farmers' families efforts; to investigate the scale of business and the farm ownership status of farmers in Denpasar. The results of the study showed that the Farmer's Term of Trade Indices in Denpasar is evenly 104.40%, which was included farmers who own their own lands, farmers who are both peasants and owning their own lands and farmers who are mere peasants. Since the Farmer's Term of Trade Indices in Denpasar was found to be higher than 100.00%, it indicated that farmers in Denpasar have been able to cover their expenses through their revenues, even the revenues might be higher than the expenses.