Changes in behavior and welfare of organic rice farmers during the COVID-19 pandemic

ABSTRACT

The Covid-19 pandemic that has hit Indonesia since 2020 sociologically has caused various changes in the order of social life and has implications for various social changes that occur in rice farmers and their level of welfare. The specific purpose of this study is to take an inventory of various phenomena of changes in farmer behavior in organic rice agribusiness and whether there are differences in farmer behavior in the agribusiness system before and during the Covid-19 pandemic associated with their level of welfare. In the long term, this study will be used to prepare the Food Crops Agribusiness Development Model following the research roadmap of the researchers that have been carried out. The study used a survey of organic rice farmers in the East Priangan area with a total sample of 43 farmers from a population of 427 organic farmers. The data used consist of primary and secondary data. Different analyzes were used to determine the behavior of farmers in organic rice agribusiness activities before and during the covid-19 pandemic. The different analyzes were processed using the Wilcoxon statistical test. Based on the analysis, there are genuine behavioral changes in all agribusiness subsystems studied, which consist of providing production facilities, on-farm subsystem, product processing subsystem, marketing subsystem, a subsystem of supporting elements, and changes in this behavior. Also causes a decrease in the level of welfare. © 2023, University of Guilan. All rights reserved.