Analysis of farming efficiency and smart farming system development in supporting garlic self-sufficiency: A concept

In Indonesia, the agricultural sector has a strategic role in sustaining the national economy. Various policies have been made with the aim of increasing the strategic role, both in the form of policies to achieve food self-sufficiency, reduce imports and even policies to encourage exports. One of the important commodities in the agricultural sector is garlic. This commodity is the government’s priority to be managed and targeted for self-sufficiency by 2021. This paper tries to trace the success of garlic farming through data studies and related literature. The review of existing data shows that over the past four years (2014 to 2017) the ratio of garlic production to imports was very small just only 4.15%, indicating that Indonesia still depends on imported garlic. Amount of imported garlic grew 5.09% per year, but on the other hand, domestic production grew negatively -1.73%, meaning that domestic production is still not enough for domestic consumption. As a discouraging form towards the achievement of self-sufficiency, this paper also reviewed the literature on the efficiency concept of garlic farming at the farm level through the approach of econometric models, as well as the concept of developing smart farming systems used for product tracking functions to the consumer level, on the contrary can be traced back to products produced by farmers. Through the offering of these two thought concepts, it is expected to be contribute in supporting the government program to achieve garlic self-sufficiency.