Suci Paramitasari Syahlani

Post Mount Merapi Eruption Recovery of Smallholder Dairy Farming: A Case Study of Disaster Management in Indonesia

Majority of dairy farmers in Indonesia are small-scale. These farmers face challenges of land scarcity, limited farmer education, low dairy cow productivity and profitability, and low milk quality. Over 80 % of total dairy cattle in Daerah Istimewa Yogyakarta (DIY) Province are in Mt. Merapi valley area. The volcanic eruption in 2010 damaged dairy farms mostly caused by hot smoky ash clouds and flowing lava. Death of cows resulted in reduced milk production in the region. Dairy farmers’ groups in this area played an important role in the disaster recovery processes. Before the disaster, dairy farmers’ groups had relationship with only cooperatives. After Mt. Merapi disaster in 2010, the dairy farmers’ groups joined Merapi Mandiri Gabungan Kelompok Tani (GAPOKTAN), which has the leverage to facilitate government assistance to farmers. GAPOKTANs were established to help solve smallholder farmers’ challenges in farm management including lack of access to government services, financial problems, difficult on milk marketing, unavailability of far inputs, and lack of access to knowledge and technology. GAPOKTANs play an important role in improving smallholder dairy farming management in a sustainable way. Through GAPOKTANs, government financial assistance was channeled to members of farmers’ groups which are affiliated to GAPOKTANs which helped immensely farmers’ recovery from Mt. Merapi disaster.

Profiles of Smallholder Dairy Farmers Groups after Volcanic Eruption Damage in Indonesia : A Case Study of Sleman Regency, Daerah Istimewa Yogyakarta

Merapi Mountain eruption has damaged farming activities including livestock farming, mostly caused by hot cloud of smoky ashes. This paper tries to describe the profiles of smallholder dairy farmer groups in Sleman Regency, Daerah Istimewa Yogyakarta Province (here after DIY Province) after the eruption. Field survey and focus group discussion were conducted to find the fact and the real situation of the farmers groups. Dairy farmers in group has colony housing for their cows together in a large dairy shed with individual responsibility on feeding and maintaining their cattle. Groups can purchase feed (concentrates) from cooperatives and sell to its members. Milk production from cows was sold to cooperative depend on its criteria and price. In order to recover after disaster, the three dairy farmers groups join GAPOKTAN to get assistance and funding from government for recovery after the disaster. GAPOKTAN help the groups in the population of their cattle, empowerment of the group, and develop their group’s organization. The assessment of dairy farmers group performance is needed to improve further the linkages of other institutions to support and drive group’s farming activity in terms of improving value chain of their milk production.

Karakteristik Kategori Adopter dalam Adopsi Inovasi Feed Additive Herbal untuk Ayam Pedaging (Adopter Category Characteristics on the Adoption of Herbal Feed Additive Inovation for Broiler)

The aims of this research were to analyze the effect of characteristics of the farmer on the probability of adopter category difference, and to analyze the effect of farmer’s perception of innovation characteristics on the probability of the difference of adopter innovation of herbal feed additive for broiler. This research was conducted from August to October 2008, in the broiler farm at Karanganyar, Sragen, and Boyolali by using research based method of descriptive analysis. The respondents of the research were 34 farmers selected by using purposive convenience sampling. The data were analyzed using descriptive analysis, Mann-Whitney analysis, and logistic binominal regression analysis. The result of the research showed that there were differences in characteristics of the farmer between early and late adopter categories; they were age (p≤0.01), formal educational level (P≤0.01), cosmopolitness level (P≤0.01), and farming experience (P≤0.05). The result of logistic binominal regression test showed that age and formal education level were characteristics factor influencing the difference of adopter category significantly (P≤0.05), while the innovation characteristics consisted of relative advantage, complexity, and observability had significant effect (P≤0.05) on the adopter category difference. The conclusion of the research was that younger farmers, higher formal education level, longer experience, and higher level of active searching information seemed to have higher probability to become the early adopter. The farmers having higher perception of innovation characteristics, relative advantage and observability, and lower perception of complexity innovation characteristic tended to be early adopter. (Key words: Adopter category, Adoption, Herbal feed additive)