Farmer groups have been critical in pursuing agricultural development, particularly in developing countries. Indonesia’s government has promoted the development of farmer groups in recent years, mainly in the rice sector, as a strategic agricultural commodity. This paper explored the relations between farmer group membership, farming practices, and productivity in the Indonesian rice sector. Propensity Score Matching (PSM) and regression analysis were employed to examine the 2014 National Agricultural Survey data. The empirical findings confirmed the positive relations between farmer group membership and productivity in the Indonesian rice sector. Furthermore, farmers’ characteristics covering age, gender, education level, and farming practices, such as land status and access to irrigation, all played a role in determining the extent to which farmers participated in farmer groups.

Along with the importance of the rice industry in the agricultural sector and rural development in Indonesia, it arguably requires the understanding of whether rice farmers have been experiencing changes in their agricultural practices. Within the existing literature, it is commonly found that most farmers in developing countries are characterized as subsistence farmers. This paper aims to explore what factors affecting the degree of farmers’ subsistence in the Indonesian rice industry. To this end, this study employed regression analysis using data from the national agricultural survey in 2014. The empirical results find that both the characteristics of farm households and rice on-farm characteristics have statistically significant effects on the farmers’ decision whether to commercialize or become subsistence. In addition, the farm gate price is also found to have a statistically significant effect, but the effect is found to be relatively small. In general, this study suggests that subsistence farming in the Indonesian rice industry is still significant though many literatures have emphasized the existence of structural change in the agricultural system in Indonesia.

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Measurement of public service satisfaction with government services serves as a valuable reflecting point for public officials to improve the public service quality. Pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia is considered as a national duty and government responsibility in countries with a significant number of Muslim citizens. This article analyzes primary data from the 2019 national public service satisfaction survey on hajj-related services within Indonesian territory collected by the Ministry of Religious Affairs to examine variation across demographic backgrounds. 1,491 respondents participated in the survey representing individual appraisals toward various services during departure and returning phases. The main focus of investigation are the six selected service dimensions, namely, 1) Individual capability, 2) Ease of access to information, 3) Service procedures, 4) Speed of service, 5) Facilities and infrastructure, and 6) Cost-related perception. The results of regression analysis support diverse roles of demographic variables in explaining variance in public service satisfaction feedback. The empirical findings suggest that people with a higher-level education are more likely to experience less satisfaction. Meanwhile, females are likely to perceive higher satisfaction with the provided services than the males.

In the agricultural sector, the cost production structure determines the income level of the farmers as well as the industry competitiveness in the world market. Considering the position of rice as the main food commodity for Indonesian people, the government has set up a program namely UPSUS PAJALE which delivers subsidies for inputs such as seeds, fertilizer, and agricultural tools. This study aims to describe the paddy farming activities in Demak Regency and to analyze the cost structure of paddy production in the UPSUS PAJALE program in Demak Regency. A survey was conducted in five production centre areas involving 100 farmers. The results showed that modern technology is used in rice farming. Land costs and labour costs dominate the cost structure of rice production. Meanwhile, the total production cost has reached 22.518.314,86 IDR per hectare with the cash cost percentage is 72,17 % and the non-cash cost percentage is 27,83 %.