IDENTIFICATION OF SOCIO-ECONOMIC ASPECTS IN THE DECISION TO DISPOSE SUGARCANE FARMERS' RATOONS IN EAST JAVA

The purpose of this study was to identify the socio-economic aspects that influence farmers' decisions to unload ratoons (ratoon plant cane). The research was conducted in Gondang Legi District, Malang Regency, East Java Province, which is one of the largest sugarcane plantation areas where there is a sugar factory. Data collection was carried out by in-depth interviews with 172 farmer respondents who were obtained using a non-proportional stratified random sampling method. To find out the socio-economic aspects, the probit regression analysis method is used which is a method to find out the relationship between the dependent variable and the independent variable in making decisions. Based on the results of the study, it was explained that the variable farming experience was significant and had a negative value with a marginal effect value of 0.0709, meaning that farmers experienced a decrease in attitude in deciding to unload ratoons by 0.709%. Furthermore, the number of family members is a significant variable with the acquisition of a marginal effect value of 0.037614 which means that by increasing the number of family members, sugarcane farmers tend to decide on ratoon plant cane activities by 3.7614%, while the use of reserved seeds is significant and negative with a marginal effect value of 0.045737. With a large number of reserved seeds, the probability of the decision to dismantle ratoons decreases by 4.5737%. For the variable land area, it has positive relationship where the value of the marginal effect is 0.1527412 with the addition of arable area; the tendency of farmers to decide to unload the ratoon is 15.27412%. Thus increasing productivity can be done by developing and assisting the right ratoon plant cane unloading activities, transparency of information and revitalization of sugar factories.