Heliyon (Dec 2022)
Partnership 4.0: smallholder farmer partnership solutions
Abstract
The current pseudo-partnership pattern causes the farmers' income to be low from the results of their farming activities, so a partnership pattern is needed that is able to create a mutual partnership. The research which was conducted in Cikarawang Village, Bogor Regency, West Java Province – Indonesia aims; (1) recognize the existing condition of farmers and the use of agricultural land; (2) knowing the distribution of agricultural commodities; (3) identify existing partnership patterns; and (4) provide solutions for partnership patterns that benefit farmers. By using mixed-methods combined with the Drone Participatory Mapping (DPM) approach to produce Data Desa Presisi (DDP), this study succeeded in identifying three statuses of farmers, namely: cultivators, owners and cultivators of their own land, and owners who work on their own land at the same time working on other people's land, with an average access to land management of 3,437.32 m2. The small access of each farmer in land management is further exacerbated by the variety of agricultural commodities that are cultivated by farmers. There are at least 19 types of agricultural commodities that are cultivated, but do not meet the economic scale that is able to improve the welfare of farmers. This condition opens up opportunities for the partnership pattern between farmers and middlemen to continue to survive which is actually detrimental to farmers. Partnership 4.0 innovation is present to replace the old partnership pattern by focusing on the basis of technology and information that is fully accessible to farmers to jointly control agricultural activities (upstream-downstream). Partnership 4.0 places farmers and offtakers on an equal footing, so that smallholders can benefit and help achieve the welfare of smallholders.