The pattern of production and marketing of horticultural commodities at the country border in Bengkayang regency; before and during the COVID-19 pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic affects various aspects of life, including farming activity by farmers in country border areas. The objective of this research is to analyze the condition of the production and marketing pattern of horticulture commodities in the border areas of the Bengkayang Regency before and during the pandemic. The research methods used mixed methods, quantitative and qualitative. The result of the research with statistical analysis of the Wilcoxon test showed that the significance value is 0.002 and which means there is a difference in the amount of vegetable production before the pandemic compared to the pandemic occurred. There is a decrease in the average percentage of vegetable production as much as 11.89 % between before and during the pandemic. On the other hand, the result of statistical analysis for fruit production shows the significance value is 0.778, which means it is no different from the amount of fruit production before and during the COVID-19 pandemic in the border area of Bengkayang Regency. Horticultural farmers sell and market their harvests in their entirety in fresh form. This research implies that efforts need to increase the added value of these horticultural commodities with preservation and packaging.


Introduction
The country's border areas in Indonesia have become remote or outermost areas, and areas isolated from some of the access and infrastructure owned in the last few decades in general.This condition also occurs in the border area of Bengkayang Regency, as happened before the 2015s, namely poor roads, uneven and inadequate access to household electricity, and limited access to information and telecommunications.There was a change in these conditions, starting in 2015, one of which was marked by the issuance of a Presidential Regulation on Spatial Planning for Border Areas in Kalimantan [1].Since the issuance of the regulation, the Indonesian government is aware of the strategic nature of the country's borders at this time so by carrying out development in the border area, it is hoped that it will be the modern and better facilties [2].The latest government regulation in developing border areas now is issuing Presidential Instruction Number 1 of 2021 concerning the acceleration of economic development in the border areas of the State in Aruk, Motaiin, and Skouw [3].One of the important things in the regulation is that the Aruk Border, which is mentioned in the Presidential Instruction, is located in Sambas Regency, which is neighboring Bengkayang Regency.Aruk, which is located in Sajingan Besar sub-district, Sambas regency, has Aruk Country Cross-Border Post (CBP).In addition to the Aruk CBP, another border area in West Kalimantan Province that has a CBP close to the Aruk CBP is the Jagoi Babang CBP in Bengkayang Regency.
The border area of Bengkayang Regency is in the province of West Kalimantan-Indonesia, mostly agricultural land and plantation land [4] and most of the people are farmers and planters.Research results and analysis by Mulyono [5], show that agricultural commodities are the mainstay of Bengkayang Regency.Some agricultural commodities that are mostly cultivated by farmers in the border areas of Bengkayang Regency are corn and various types of vegetables [4].Strategic commodities that have the potential to be developed in the border areas of Bengkayang Regency are agricultural commodities, including vegetables and fruits [6] and [7], and appropriate for livestock too [8].Vegetable commodities that are widely grown are red chilies, cayenne peppers, tomatoes, long beans, white eggplant, cucumbers, and beans, while fruit commodities such as durian, papaya, rambutan, and avocado.All of these horticultural commodities are sold fresh after harvesting is done.
These commodities are very strategic to be developed in border areas, because these commodities have several potentials, namely; 1) horticultural commodities have a fairly high market demand from Malaysian citizens, who are in the border area of Serikin Malaysia, 2) horticultural commodities are sold, generally have a higher selling price if the commodity is sold to the market in the Serikin region of Malaysia, compared to being sold in the market area of Bengkayang or Pontianak city in Indonesia, 3) the distance to the border area is 25 km, closer than the distance to Bengkayang city, which is 50.5 km and further to Pontianak, as the provincial capital, which is 220 km, 4) selling of commodity horticulture to Malaysia is generally paid by the Malaysian currency exchange rate, namely Ringgit (MYR), which generally always increases when converted to the Indonesian currency, namely Rupiah (IDR), 5) Vegetable commodities can grow well and produce high yields in the country's border areas in Bengkayang Regency.
The COVID-19 pandemic is an extraordinary occurrence that occurs globally and affects and has an impact on all aspects of the life of the world community [9].The pandemic also has an impact on aspects of life for farming communities and the people in the Bengkayang border area, both in their farming activities and in the daily lives of farmers' households.The relationship between the pandemic and the condition of the people and farming communities can be seen from the aspect of the production and consumption of agricultural commodities.The point of view of the production aspect is that under any circumstances, farmers will carry out their agricultural production activities to earn their economic income and household economic life, including in conditions of a pandemic.However, in the production process carried out by the farmers, there were several obstacles or limitations in the pandemic conditions, namely: limitations with the existing health standard protocols that have been set by the government [10], including going to the market, to the fields, to the extension meeting, to the farm store.Some of these conditions can affect the production process so it will indirectly reduce horticultural agricultural production by farmers.All of these limitations have become strict protocols that apply in efforts to prevent and mitigate the spread of the COVID-19 outbreak and infection from the virus [11] and [12].
The point of view of the consumption aspect is that in a pandemic situation, there is a tendency for people to pay more attention and increase their consumption of vegetables and fruits, which contain lots of vitamins to maintain and improve their health and immunity.This condition means that market demand for horticultural commodities will increase and will cause an increase in selling prices if the availability of these commodities is limited or just a little [13] and [14].It is interesting to do research in observing the phenomenon of production, consumption, and marketing of horticultural commodities before and during a pandemic in country border areas.The purpose of this study is to see and analyze

Result and discussion
Bengkayang Regency in the province of West Kalimantan, Indonesia has a Cross-Border Post (CBP) in the Jagoi Babang sub-district.One of the regulations about the border distinguishes Cross-Border Posts (CBP) into two types or levels, namely international CBP and traditional CBP [19].The two types of CBP are distinguished by the facilities, infrastructure, facilities, services, and infrastructure that exist and support the CBP.International CBP has a higher level than traditional CBP with several advantages.Referring to the regulation, the Jagoi Babang CBP is traditional.
Jagoi Babang CBP has a border with the state of Sarawak in Malaysia.The Serikin market in Sarawak is the closest traditional market to the border, which is 8 km or 15 minutes from the border between the two countries.Serikin Market in Sarawak Malaysia is a traditional market, with simple and non-permanent stalls or kiosks.The selling stalls at Serikin market are not open every day, usually only open on Saturdays or Sundays.most of the sellers in Serikin market are Indonesian citizens and most of the buyers are Malaysian citizens.Trade transactions in border areas can be profitable for the community of a country or both [20] and [21], The Trading of country cross-border become a trigger for an increase in the economy in the region [2,[22][23][24].Most of the goods or commodities sold are commodities or products originating from Indonesia.The goods sold in the Serikin market, such as vegetables, fruits, clothes, kitchen utensils, and others.For two years during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Serikin market was closed by the Malaysian government, as were the border access gates.Serikin market has been reopened since July 2022, although access must go through the Aruk border gate in Sambas Regency.
Jagoi Babang and Siding sub-districts are two sub-districts in Bengkayang Regency which have a borderline with Malaysia, while several other sub-districts around the border are Seluas sub-district, Tujuh Belas sub-district, Sanggau Ledo sub-district, and Ledo sub-district.Sub-districts that have borders and surrounding sub-districts can be termed border zone.Some of these sub-districts are dominated by agricultural land and some are plantation land, except for the Siding sub-district where most of the area is forest and fields, and part of it is plantation land.The siding sub-district is part of a protected forest area so the area has limitations to be developed into agricultural land.There are regulations prohibiting to convert into other land functions.The altitude of sub-districts near the country border ranges from 21.0 m AMSL in the Ledo sub-district and Jagoi Babang sub-district to 220 m AMSL in Siding sub-district.

Production
Tujuh Belas sub-district, Sanggau Ledo sub-district, Ledo sub-district, Seluas sub-district, and Sanggau Ledo sub-district, recorded at least from 2016 to 2020 are the five subdistricts that dominate the production of vegetables and fruits when compared to other subdistricts in Bengkayang Regency [25].Consumers of horticultural commodities produced by farmers in the country border area in Bengkayang Regency are the Serikin community in Malaysia, which is close to the country border.Several vegetable commodities that dominate the production of the five sub-districts are; chili, cayenne, tomatoes, cucumber, long bean, white eggplant, and snap bean, and the fruit commodities are; avocado, durian, papaya, and rambutan.
The results of the non-parametric statistical analysis of the Wilcoxon test from Table 2 show that there is a significant difference at a significance value is 0.002 which means rejecting the null hypothesis.It means there is a difference in the amount of vegetable production before the pandemic compared to when the pandemic occurred.Quantitative analysis data shows that there is a decrease in the average percentage difference of as much as 11.89 % between before and during the pandemic.This condition is caused by many vegetable farmers who are reluctant to plant or do their vegetable farming, due to anxiety of being exposed to COVID-19 while doing outdoor activities, but this condition occurred in early to mid-2020 when the issue or news about the pandemic was very scary and there are not yet of health protocol guidelines.Vegetable farmers in border areas at the beginning of the pandemic generally did not farm their vegetables and it caused felt their household economic income to decrease, so that at the end of 2020 some farmers who previously did not farm vegetables, then planted several vegetable commodities to earn income from their vegetable farming.In addition to the interests of household economic income, this condition is carried out in line with increasing understanding of COVID-19 and health protocols, so that farmers dare to go outdoors, to the fields, to the market, and to farmers' meetings, which had not dared to do so previously.
Most of the vegetable farmers in border areas reduced their vegetable planting area during the pandemic, compared to before the pandemic.The reduction in the planting area is due to the limited ability to buy production inputs, and also because there is still anxiety that farmers will be exposed to the virus when they go outdoors.some vegetable farmers reduce their vegetable growing area, from the usual 0.5 Ha to 0.25 Ha, and from the usual 0.30 Ha to 0.1 Ha.Input production like fertilizer and pesticide is a high-cost input unit in vegetable farming [26], such as the results of research by Hasan et al. [27] that NPK fertilizers affect the productivity of hybrid chili.However, the average productivity of vegetables grown by farmers has not decreased compared to before the pandemic in general.Calculation of production data recorded at BPS is the multiplication of planted area with productivity, so there is a decrease in average production during a pandemic, due to a decrease in planted area.
There is an exception for Ledo sub-district, namely there is an increase in production (Table 1) compared to other sub-districts.This condition is caused by farmers in the Ledo sub-district filling the vacancies in the vegetable market which are usually filled or filled by farmers from farmers in other sub-districts around the Ledo sub-district, so that Ledo farmers increase the area of land planted with vegetables by planting on their land which was previously rarely planted with vegetables.The production of fruit commodities in border areas in terms of production is different from that of vegetable crops so the analysis and description are distinguished.Fruit commodities are annual crops that are generally harvested once a year, in contrast to vegetable commodities which can be planted and harvested many times in one year.The fruit commodities that are widely grown by farmers in border areas are avocado, durian, papaya, and rambutan.Farmers' durian and rambutan trees, which are 10 to 20 years old generally, are planted in the forest area.Papaya and avocado trees owned by farmers are 1 to 2 years old generally.
The results of in-depth interviews using a qualitative approach show that farmers plant avocado, durian, and rambutan trees for purpose to get regular income once a year at harvest and selling them to the market.Fruits harvest occurs for 3 months, namely in early November to the end of January.These farmers plant these fruit commodities with the reasoning that these fruits have a relatively high price at the regency market or the Serikin market in Malaysia.Avocado is a commodity that is newly recognized and planted by farmers in border areas.Farmers argue and explain that avocado commodity has a fairly high market demand for Malaysian and Indonesian citizens in the border areas.
The results of the non-parametric statistical analysis with the Wilcoxon test in Table 4 show that there is no significant difference at a significance value is 0.778 which means retaining the null hypothesis.It means there is no difference in the amount of fruit production before the pandemic compared to when the pandemic occurred.This condition is different from the results of statistical analysis on vegetable crops, where there is a significant difference.This is because the fruits grown by farmers are not as intensively caring generally as vegetable crops.Farmers only see their fruit trees occasionally until it's harvest time so the amount of production is the same relativity as before and during the pandemic.Most of the fruit trees are located on forest lands owned by farmers, in contrast to vegetable crops which are located in farmers' fields or gardens generally.
There are differences in the treatment of farmers in caring for avocado and papaya commodities, compared to durian and rambutan.Farmers give fertilizers and pesticides to care for avocado and papaya trees.This is done because farmers gain knowledge from their experience, that in maintaining avocado and papaya if no treatment is carried out such as applying fertilizer or pesticides, the production will be decreased.This is different from the experience of farmers in maintaining durian or rambutan trees, when given the fertilizer will cause the same production relatively.
The durian varieties kept by farmers in the border areas are almost entirely local durians.Some of these local varieties have a strong smell and good taste compared to superior varieties such as Montong, so they are much liked by people in border areas, both Indonesian citizens and Malaysian citizens.The variety of rambutan which is commonly grown by farmers in border areas is the Rapiah variety, with a thin skin texture, soft flesh, not juicy, and a sweet taste, so it is widely grown, sold, and consumed by people in border areas.

Marketing
Several vegetable and fruit commodities produced by farmers in border areas are marketed to several market points.These horticultural commodities are sold in fresh form, without or not being processed into processed products.These products are also sold without packaging or other treatment, even though the results of the study show that post-harvest handling including packaging will increase the selling value of eggplant vegetables [28].This condition is a weakness for farmers in selling their vegetables and fruits because the character of horticultural products is perishable generally [29], [30] and [31], such as tomatoes or chilies can only stay fresh for 3-4 days after harvesting, so farmers generally have to sell their vegetables immediately without storing them first.Farmers cannot hold their vegetables or fruits any longer, and if they are held for longer, the vegetables will be damaged or wilted, so the price will drop or even have no selling value at all.This condition makes farmers a weak position in bargaining the selling price with buyers or collector sellers.This condition did not change before and during the pandemic, farmers still sold their horticultural commodities to the market in fresh form.Some post-harvest handling of some horticultural commodities will be able to increase the selling value of these commodities [32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39], so similarly if the packaging treatment is carried out on these commodities [40][41][42].
The selling and marketing system from horticultural farmers as producers to consumers has several marketing channels.There are two marketing patterns of horticultural commodities sold by farmers, namely: 1) farmers sell their harvested vegetables and fruits directly to collector traders in the Serikin region of Malaysia, and 2) farmers sell them to collectors, either on-site at the farmer's field or traders' home.In the first pattern, farmers bring the harvest using their motorbikes to collector traders.Farmers sell their vegetables by motorbike the frequency of 2 to 3 times a week.The weight of the crops sold that can be transported using a motorbike is around 40 to 60 kgs in one way, while when using his pick-up car, he brings the harvest around 1.0 to 1.5 tons in one way.Farmers who sell their harvest using cars are farmers who belong to the middle economic class.
The second selling pattern is that farmers sell their harvested vegetables and fruits to collectors.Farmers choose this pattern because it is perceived as simpler, less hassle, and does not take a long time to generate income from the sale.However, this second pattern makes the selling price received by farmers lower than the first pattern.Vegetable and fruit farmers prefer to sell with the second pattern compared to the first pattern, taking into account the ease of selling and the quickness in getting the income they receive from the sale.
All vegetable or fruit farmers in border area sub-districts sell their harvests in fresh form, with no preservation, no processing, and no packaging.They generally sell their harvests to collector traders, and just a few farmers sold their harvest by themselves using motorbikes to the Serikin area of Malaysia.Most of the transportation access roads to the border areas in Serikin are in poor condition.The condition of the road to the border gate is still narrow, the road is muddy and only a small part is a coral stone road.Meanwhile, road conditions from farmers' fields to main roads are generally good, with good asphalt road conditions, as well as major roads towards the CBP gate in good condition, because these roads are parallel roads country that parallels the line of the country border.Marketing of harvested horticultural by farmers, apart from being sold or marketed to Serikin Malaysia in border areas, is also marketed to the nearest sub-district market, to markets in the district capital, namely Bengkayang market, and also to the several markets of the provincial capital in Pontianak City, especially Flamboyant Market.The marketing of these horticultural commodities is mostly done by collector traders, and a few by farmers themselves, namely farmers who have their vehicles, such as pick-up cars.Collector traders have a marketing network that gathers and collect farmers' crops in the district markets and the Pontianak market.
During the pandemic, the pattern of selling and marketing of horticultural commodities by farmers in the border area of Bengkayang Regency underwent a slight change (Table 5).These changes are particularly evident in the pattern of selling and marketing to the Serikin area of Malaysia.Selling activities to the Serikin area before the pandemic occurred, were mostly done by farmers themselves using motorbikes through the CBP.There are no special fees or levies when passing inspections at the country border.The conditions were different when the pandemic occurred, with the reason being to limit the spread of the COVID-19 virus, the CBP was closed for access and goods so this condition had an impact on the pattern of selling and marketing of horticultural commodities.At the time of the pandemic, the selling of horticultural commodities to the Serikin area farmers got through illegal posts in the tiny lane of the forest of the country border.Some of the illegal gates are located in Semunying Village of Jagoi Babang sub-district and Sungkung Village in Siding sub-district.Source: Primary data Some of the conditions and the results of the statistical analysis above show that in extraordinary conditions, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, horticultural farmers in the country border area in Jagoi Babang Bengkayang District, continue to carry out farming activities and horticultural production to fulfill their family's economy, even at the beginning of the pandemic, there is a decrease in the area of planted vegetables.In addition, market demand for horticultural products, especially from Malaysia, is relatively constant to meet the consumption of its people.
The weakness of the conditions and patterns of selling and marketing carried out by horticultural farmers in the Jagoi Babang border area at this time is that the vegetables and fruit products sold are still in fresh form, without any treatment to maintain the freshness of their products and without processing and packaging of the products.Horticultural products, especially vegetables, have a perishable nature and their selling value will decrease if they are sold in a wilted or damaged.
The implication of the weakness of these horticultural products, it is necessary to maintain and increase the selling value of these horticultural products, post-harvest handling is needed, both preservation, making processed products, and packaging.There are many technological innovations resulting from research that has been carried out in the aspect of horticultural commodities preservation [28,[43][44][45][46] and horticultural commodities packaging [47][48][49].However, post-harvest handling has a cost risk in preserving, packaging, and processing, so to be efficient and cost-effective in the post-harvest handling process, it is necessary to collaborate with other horticultural farmers, namely in horticultural farmer groups.
Farmer groups are groups that contain farmers and have the same vision, mission, and goals.Most of the farmers in Indonesia are members of farmer groups in their neighborhoods, but in some conditions, these farmer groups experience problems and obstacles to their development, so it is necessary to empower these farmer groups.The empowerment of farmer groups includes social aspects, such as togetherness, cohesiveness, and common vision, and economic aspects, such as economic financing of production inputs, post-harvest handling, and product marketing.

Conclusion
The results showed that there were differences in the pattern of production of vegetable commodities produced by farmers in the country border areas in Bengkayang Regency before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.Different things happened in the production pattern for fruit commodities, namely, there was no difference before and during the occurrence COVID-19 pandemic.During 2020 when the pandemic occurred, there was a closure of country cross-border posts, resulting in changes in selling and marketing patterns of horticultural commodities, which were produced by farmers in border areas of Bengkayang Regency.Horticultural products are sold and marketed by horticultural farmers in the border areas of Bengkayang Regency, all in fresh form, without preservation, processing, and packaging.This condition occurred before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.These conditions imply that efforts are needed to increase the added value of these horticultural products, not only in fresh form, but also in preservation, processing, and packaging.

9 Table 5 .•••
The pattern of selling and marketing of horticultural commodities produced by farmers in the country border area in Bengkayang Regency.Through the country border post in the Jagoi Babang District • Using motorbikes or pick-up cars farmer's own • Sold in the form of fresh vegetables • Through several illegal posts or tiny lanes in the forests of Siding and Jagoi Babang sub-districts • Entrance through the illegal posts • Using pick-up cars of collector traders • Sold in the form of fresh vegetables Using motorbikes farmer's own • Sold in the form of fresh vegetables • Using motorbikes farmer's own • Sold in the form of fresh vegetables Using pick-up cars farmer's own • Sold in the form of fresh vegetables • Using pick-up cars or trucks of collector traders • Sold in the form of fresh vegetables 50.5 Pontianak city market • Using pick-up cars or trucks of collector traders • Sold in the form of fresh vegetables • Using pick-up cars or trucks of collector traders • Sold in the form of fresh vegetables 220

Table 1 .
Production of vegetables at the country border in Bengkayang regency, before and during the pandemic COVID-19.

Table 2 .
The result of Wilcoxon test of hypothesis test summary for production of vegetables a Sig.= The significance level is .050.b Sig.= Asymptotic significance is displayed.

Table 3 .
Production of fruits at the country border in Bengkayang Regency, before and during the pandemic COVID-19

Table 4 .
The result of Wilcoxon test of hypothesis test summary for production of vegetables.
a Sig.= The significance level is .050.b Sig.= Asymptotic significance is displayed.