A Study to Determine Feasible Government Development Strategies for Farms in Nimboran Irian Jaya

Abstract

The study was undertaken to establish what factors constrain small-farmers in Nimboran Irian Jaya from increasing their net cash incomes (NCI) and to determine how these constraints can best be relaxed. The constraints are viewed within the wider context of transforming local subsistence agriculture towards a commercial agriculture. A decision theoretic approach, combined with subjective equilibrium theory and subsistence affluence theory is used. The selected basic model is stochastic discrete programming, wherein a lexicographic decision rule is specified which explains that resources will be allocated to cash activities only after subsistence food requirements have been met. A field survey was conducted to interview 30 of the 357 farm households estimated to be found in the region, to collect farm data, elicit utility functions and subjective probabilities of the states of nature. ... The result of the analysis showed that the availability of female labour was the most limiting factor. The level of crop activities between the two utility groups appeared to be the same. Only the expected NCI varied. The expected NCI of the better educated farmers group appeared to be lower and closer to the value of expected consumption than that of the majority of the farmers group. The possible interpretation of these facts is that the pattern of resource allocation or the level of crop activities is the best - given the existing resources, technology and institutional conditions - regardless of whether the aspirations have increased or not. The best available farm development strategy is expanding cash crops such as coconut and cocoa, where reallocation of resources may still be possible to generate higher expected NCI. Given the Nimboran farmers subjective assessment, the introduction of rice could be difficult since it appeared to have increased resources - land and labour - used, but added extremely little to the expected NCI.