Luas Lahan Usaha Tani dan Kesejateraan Petani: Eksistensi Petani Gurem dan Urgensi Kebijakan Reforma Agraria

Abstract

One of approaches to improve farmers' welfare is improving farmers' access to land tenure. Implementation of the agrarian reform program, therefore, is very important. This paper aims at analyzing the minimum requirements of farm land size and its break-even point (BEP) per farmers' household and to recommend policies on improving farmers' income. The number of farmers holding farm land with areas less than 0.5 ha increased from 45.3% in 1993 to 56.4% in 2003, while the average size of paddy land tenure, especially in Java, decreased from 0.49 ha in 1995 to 0.36 ha in 2007. Farm land area required for reaching BEP for paddy, maize and soybean farms are 0.51, 0.41 and 0.46 ha, respectively. Farm land sizes needed by paddy, maize and soybean farmers' to earn income equal to or above the minimum BPS Poverty Line Boundary are 0.65, 1.12 and 0.74 ha per household. Furthermore, assuming that land size tenure is the same with those of Patanas 2010 research, the actual prices of paddy, maize and soybean to achieve farmers' income above the poverty line should be increased by 36-207 percent. Thus, agrarian reform needs to be implemented.