A deficiency of shallot seed production causes Indonesia could not meet its own local demand yet and thus imports foreign variety from other countries. However, farmer should choose between local and imported seed variety for their farming business activity. The purposes of the study was to analyze farmer decision and factors that determine farmer decision to utilize local and imported seed of shallot. Logistic regression was used to answer the research questions. Respondents were 60 persons divided into two groups, farmer who utilized local seed and that utilized the imported one. The result showed that the differences in decision making between local and imported farmers were the benefits they sought, while the factors that significantly influence the farmer's decision to use local seed are scale of land area, seed price, income and market. Scale of land area and seed price have negative influence significantly, while income and market give positive influence significantly on farmer decision to utilize conventional seed.

PendahuluanBawang merah merupakan salah satu komoditas sayuran yang memiliki nilai ekonomis tinggi ditinjau dari sisi pemenuhan konsumsi nasional, sumber penghasilan petani dan potensinya sebagai penghasil devisa negara. Rukmana (1994) menjelaskan bahwa bawang merah termasuk salah satu komoditas sayuran unggulan nasional yang telah lama diusahakan petani secara intensif. Produksi bawang merah sampai saat ini memang belum optimal dan masih tercermin dalam keragaman cara budidaya yang bercirikan spesifik agroekosistem tempat bawang merah diusahakan.Petani bawang merah menggunakan bermacam-macam varietas baik yang lokal maupun impor. Tingginya kebutuhan benih bawang merah baik dalam bentuk benih komersial maupun Abstract A deficiency of shallot seed production causes Indonesia could not meet its own local demand yet and thus imports foreign variety from other countries. However, farmer should choose between local and import seed variety for their farming business activity while their decision is affected by perception. The study has purpose to analyze farmer perception on utilization between conventional and foreign seed and to identify their the quality as well. The study employs perception analysis using scoring method with average determination and utilize perceptual mapping to create network diagram. Respondents are 60 persons divided into two groups, farmer who utilized conventional seed and that apply the foreign one. The study shows that farmer both utilizes conventional and foreign seed have good perception to the conventional seed while the perception is not too good for the foreign one. Overall, farmers perception on conventional seed is better than the foreign one which means that conventional has more advantages than the foreign. AbstrakAdanya keterbatasan produksi benih bawang merah nasional menyebabkan Indonesia belum mampu memenuhi kebutuhan benih nasional. Oleh karena itu Indonesia mengimpor benih bawang merah dari beberapa negara. Dengan hadirnya benih bawang merah impor, petani dihadapkan kepada suatu pilihan yaitu menggunakan benih lokal ataupun impor sedangkan pemilihan benih tidak terlepas dari persepsi petani terhadap varietas tersebut. Oleh karena itu penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menganalisis persepsi petani terhadap penggunaan benih bawang merah lokal dan impor serta keunggulan dari benih lokal dan impor. Metode analisis yang digunakan adalah analisis persepsi dengan teknik scoring dan dianalisis menggunakan metode rata-rata skor serta penggunaan teknik Perceptual Mapping dengan membuat grafik sarang laba-laba.Responden penelitian berjumlah 60 orang yang terdiri dari 30 petani pengguna benih bawang merah lokal dan 30 petani pengguna benih impor. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa persepsi petani pengguna benih bawang merah lokal dan impor terhadap benih bawang merah lokal tergolong baik, sedangkan persepsi petani pengguna benih bawang merah lokal dan impor terhadap penggunaan benih impor tergolong kurang baik. Secara keseluruhan persepsi petani terhadap benih lokal lebih baik dibandingkan d...