The effect of infrastructure development on increasing farmers’ income of main agricultural commodities in Serdang Bedagai Regency

Abstract

Improving the quality and quantity of infrastructure leading to agricultural production centers will increase the economic activities of the community. The more stable infrastructure of agricultural centers will facilitate access to the location, more competitive prices, and more guaranteed quality so that it will increase agricultural production and productivity as well as the income and welfare of the community, especially farmers. The contribution of Serdang Bedagai’s agricultural and plantation sectors is so large that it is only natural that the priority of infrastructure development is the construction of roads and bridges to facilitate the mobility of agricultural products. This study was conducted to provide additional perspectives and references on the importance of infrastructure in improving the welfare and income of rice farmers in Serdang Bedagai regency. This study employs quantitative approaches. The investigation took place within Serdang Bedagai Regency, Sumatera Utara Province by distributing questionnaires to respondents, namely 96 farmers. Respondents were farmers representing 17 sub-districts. The findings indicated that infrastructure development positively and significantly influences the income of farmers producing the main commodities in the Serdang Bedagai area. Furthermore, it is shown that road conditions (X) have an impact of 47.4% on the income (Y) of major commodity farmers in the Serdang Bedagai regency.