Farmers empowerment level analysis in farming during the Covid-19 pandemic and its impact on farm income

Abstract

This study aims to analyze the level of farmer empowerment in carrying out farming activities as the main livelihood and its impact on farm income during the Covid-19 pandemic. The research was conducted online by distributing questionnaires in the form of google form in various affordable areas. There were 113 responses obtained by returning the google form on time. The three regions that sent the most responses were farmers in Ambon City, West Seram Regency, and Central Maluku Regency. After analyzing using qualitative descriptive analysis, the results showed that the level of farmer empowerment during the Covid-19 pandemic decreased, especially in terms of marketing of crop products for fruit and vegetable commodities, while for food commodities such as rice tended to be stable. This has an impact on farm productivity and income. The main factor causing a decrease in the level of farmer empowerment is the decreasing purchasing power of the community during the Covid pandemic19; Accessibility of farmers to markets is difficult, there are even times when farmers cannot go to the market due to large-scale social restrictions, the frequency of presence of collectors is reduced, access to plant production facilities is hampered unlike before the Covid pandemic19. This condition requires serious attention from the government so that farmers do not experience difficulties in marketing agricultural products and can maintain the stability of farm income. The solution at the farmer level is to form farmer groups so that the marketing of farm products and the fulfillment of plant production facilities can be done through farmer groups.