Agribusiness Behavior of Young Farmers in Coffee Farming Management in Bantaeng Regency, South Sulawesi Province, Indonesia

Abstract

The percentage of youth aged 16-30 years who work in the agricultural sector continues to decline. Currently, the number of young farmers is 3.95 million or 21.9% of the total farmers in Indonesia. This number is decreasing from year to year. Data on the number of farmers by age group shows that young people's interest in working in the agricultural sector is low. Even though there are quite a lot of business opportunities in the agricultural sector, both on-farm and especially off-farm. The sustainability of agriculture in the future is greatly influenced by the behavior of young farmers. Farmers are younger and better trained in business activities, are diverse, have a positive attitude toward new market opportunities, are more sensitive to customer needs, and are better prepared to engage in new ventures. The research aims to describe the entrepreneurial characteristics and agribusiness behavior of young farmers in the upstream, downstream, on-farm, and supporting institution subsystems, as well as analyze the relationship between entrepreneurial characteristics and agribusiness behavior. The research method uses a quantitative descriptive research design and correlation analysis, using a sample of 50 coffee farmers aged 16-30 years in Labbo Village, Tompobulu District, Bantaeng Regency. The results show that the dominant entrepreneurial characteristics of young farmers in coffee farming management are creative and innovative. There is a significant and positive relationship between entrepreneurial characteristics and young farmers' agribusiness behavior in upstream agribusiness, cultivation subsystem (on-farm), downstream agribusiness, and supporting institutions.