Determinant of rice farmers welfare in wetlands of South Sumatra Province, Indonesia

Rice is the staple food in Indonesia, and high demand makes tidal and swamp lands a potential alternative to increase its production. But, efforts to increase the production are often not in line with the farmers welfare. Therefore, this study aims to compare the farmers welfare in tidal and swamp land areas and the influencing factors.A survey method was used and the selected locations were determined purposively to be two villages with tidal land type and another two with swamp land type in Banyuasin Regency, South Sumatra rovince. From each village, 30 samples were selected randomly, therefore the total was 120 farmers. Welfare was measured by the rice subsistence exchange rate indicator and its determinants were analyzed using multiple linear regression. The study results found that farmers in swamp land were more prosperous than those in tidal land. The factors that have a significant effect on their welfare in both lands are food and non-food consumption, production costs, and yield. Meanwhile, the grain price only had a significant effect on swamp land.
Key words: Rice subsistence exchange rate, Tidal and swamp.