Accelerating Farmers' Regeneration of Chili Farmers in Garut District, West Java, Indonesia

Abstract

Indonesia will experience a crisis of agricultural generation if the tendency of youth to find work in urban areas is not dammed, therefore efforts to increase the interest of rural youth in agriculture are urgent. A study related to farmers' regeneration was carried out in Garut District, with the aim at (1) describing the level of capacity, interest, and participation of youth in the farmers; regeneration in chili farmers community; (2) finding factors that influence the acceleration of farmers; regeneration; and (3) formulating strategies to accelerate the regeneration process of farmers. This survey research involved 233 respondents from 1,367 population that determined using the Slovin formula. Data collected through direct interviews using a close-ended questionnaire that has been calibrated with validity and reliability tests. Research Results: (1) most respondents rated the acceleration of farmers' regeneration, interest, participation, business capacity and external factors of young farmers are in medium level. Most respondents belong to the category of young farmers with an average age of 31.47 years, graduates of elementary school, never been involved in organizations or courses, but have high cosmopolitan (2) the acceleration of regeneration is directly affected by age (negative), involvement in the organization, and interest, (3) strategies for accelerating farmers' regeneration of chili farmers community can be done by (a) farmers' regeneration of youth in the early time, (b) involving youth in farmer groups, (c) increasing youth's interest in agricultural business through various agricultural programs.