The Influence of Socio-Economic Factors toward the Farmer’s Adoption Rate on Soy Bean Crop Farming in the Semi Arid Area of South Amanatun Sub District, the South-Midle Timor District

Abstract

It is neccery to realize that soy bean has certain important benefits for people, either for food or for fulfiling the row materials needed by such industries as: animal feed, medicine, liquid paint, and printed ink industries. For food, people should consum the soybean, primarily by people who are living in the areas placed far from the source of fish and meat, because the soy bean contains nabati protein in a high level of percentege, around 40-41%, and nine kinds of important matters functioning to prevent women from breast canccer infection. People can consume soybean in the type of: fermented soy bean cake (tempeh), tofu, soy bean milk, et cetera. Although the soy bean is categorized as an important food, but the number of farmers cultivating this crop in Indonesia, as well as in the Pronvince of Nusa Tenggara Timur (NTT), included in the Sub District of South Amanatun as a semi arid area, are still very limited, while the availability of natural resources supporting the growth of this crop is very potensial, and then the soy bean needed by industries operated near by this Sub District dominantly are supplied by outside of the NTT, such as from: Java, Bali, and Lombok, even from U. S. A. Farmers in the Sub District of South Amanatun, only a few who have cultivated soy bean crops, while the majority of them have not cultivated yet. These facts indicate that among farmers probably because of their having different level of socio-nomic factors which inluence them to adopt or not to the soy bean crop farming. To examine whether or not these different level of socio-economic factors have signicant influence to the farmer’s adoption on the soy bean farming, then a study had been done in 2018. On the basis of results of the data analysis by applying the Linear Probablity Modle demonstrated that: the socio-economic factors which have the significant influence to the farmer’s adoption on the soy bean crop farming in the study area were: (1) the level of farmer’s knowledge related to soy bean cultivation and soy bean processing, (2) the level of farmer’s perception on the soy bean cultivation, (3) the level of farmer’s interest on the soy bean crop farming, and (4) farmer’s family income. The other soci-economic factors such as the level of farmer’s formal and non formal education, the level of farmer’s cosmopolitan, the farmer’s orientation on soybean crop farming, and the farmer’s size of land operated for soyben crop farming have no significant infuence to the farmer’s adoption on soybean cropp farming.