Impact of Surplus Labor Existence on Land Lease Market in Rural Central Java

"Objective � The Indonesian rice sector seems to lose global competitiveness, and the government intervenes in the market to achieve food self-sufficiency. Particularly, in the main rice producing areas of Central Java, the rice sector does not have a comparative and competitive advantage due to small farm size. Then, we need to investigate the reasons why the farm sizes of rice producers are still small. Methodology/Technique � We hypothesize that the existence of surplus labor in rural areas restrains farm size enlargement. Therefore, we need to examine the existence of surplus labor in study area. By using the empirical model of the Cobb Douglas production function, we test the hypothesis of surplus labor. The estimation result shows that there is a surplus of labor in the study area. Findings � In addition, we examine the impact of surplus labor on land lease market in rural area. This study proves empirically that there is surplus labor in rural areas; therefore, farmers have difficulty finding job opportunities in sectors other than farming. In such a case, they prefer to cultivate rather than lease their land. Novelty � This result implies that the existence of surplus labor restricts the number of land lease contract. As a result, the land lease supply in the land lease market has become very limited. Thus, the existence of surplus labor in rural areas would be a constraint of farm size enlargement. This is the first study which explores the relationship between surplus labor and land lease market in the main rice producer area in Central Java."