Farmers’ responses to the use of rice agro-advisory service application in South Bengkulu Regency

The Rice Agro-advisory Service which in Indonesian is called “Layanan Konsultasi Padi (LKP)” is an internet-based digital application developed by IRRI to compile recommendations for rice cultivation technology. This study aims to determine the response of farmers in the production centers of irrigated lowland rice in South Bengkulu Regency to the application. The research was carried out from September to November 2022 through a survey involving 87 farmers in 42 villages. The data collected includes farmers’ responses to recommendations for lowland rice cultivation technology generated by LKP and farmers’ responses to its attributes, namely mobility (ease of accessing applications), interactive (recommendations by needs of farmers), communicative (recommendations easily understood by farmers), and autonomous (applications can be operated by farmers independently). Data were analyzed descriptively and correlated using contingency coefficients. The results showed that 83.91% of farmers responded well to the application recommendations. Responses to LKP were classified as good for all attributes as mobility (95.40%), interactive (96.55%), communicative (98.95%), and autonomous (74.71%). Farmers’ responses to the LKP recommendations were positively correlated with the interactive attribute which means that a good response to LKP recommendations is closely related to the needs of farmers for site-specific recommendations for lowland rice cultivation.


Introduction
Increasing rice productivity is one of the important efforts in agricultural development programs in Indonesia.An increase in population causes the need for rice to increase to meet the staple food needs of the Indonesian people [1].The application of technology is very important in efforts to increase rice productivity [2] .The adoption of site-specific rice technology is constrained by the suitability of the technology for the growing season and land conditions [3].
The development of information and communication technology has an important meaning in accelerating farmers' access to location-specific rice farming technology.The International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) has developed a digital application based on artificial intelligence to determine location-specific rice cultivation technology recommendations according to land conditions, climate, and technology application.This application is called Rice Agro-advisory Service or in Indonesian it is called "Layanan Konsultasi Padi (LKP)" which assists in the application of locationspecific technologies [4].The use of Rice Agro-advisory Service is reported to have increased rice productivity in several countries.In India, the adoption of Rice Agro-advisory Service has increased productivity (3.7-6.7%) and profits of rice farming (19.74-20.18%)compared to conventional technology [5] .Rice Agroadvisory Service was able to reduce the production costs of rice cultivation by 12% in Bangladesh and increase farmers' profits by 25% [6] .The application of LKP in lowland rice production centers in Indonesia was able to reduce fertilizer costs by 61.57% and increase farming profits by 14.04% [7] .Farmers' preference for the use of the application varies between growing seasons [8] .LKP provides more informative recommendations for site-specific rice cultivation in Indonesia [9].
The knowledge of agricultural extension workers regarding recommendations for lowland rice cultivation technology in South Bengkulu Regency is still relatively low [10].The lack of agricultural extension capacity will reduce the level of performance in technology dissemination.Even though the performance of agricultural extension workers in the dissemination of technological innovations is positively related to technology adoption and rice productivity at the farm level [11].This is proven by the low productivity of paddy rice in South Bengkulu Regency.The average productivity of irrigated lowland rice in this region is 4.667 tons/ha, relatively lower than the average productivity of Bengkulu Province which has reached 4.809 tons/ha [12] .The use of artificial intelligence-based digital technology such as LKP is an innovation that needs to be introduced to rice production centers in South Bengkulu Regency to assist agricultural extension agents in disseminating location-specific rice cultivation technology.
Digital-based technologies are adopted because they are easy to use and responsive to user needs [13].In analyzing the role of digital technology, technology adoption is not only directly related to the technology recommendations it produces, but is also mediated by the use of artificial intelligence devices.These devices must have mobility, interactive, communicative, and autonomous capabilities [14] .Mobility shows that a digital technology service can be accessed easily.Interactive means that technology services can be reciprocated according to user needs.The message received can be understood by the user so that it is communicative.Digital technology is autonomous, meaning that the technology can be operated by users by reducing the role of other parties in carrying out its functions.
The LKP application is intended to produce location-specific rice cultivation technology recommendations.Obtaining this recommendation requires the ability of farmers to use the LKP application which can be accessed via the URL LKP ID Versi 1.0 (irri.org).This study aims to determine the response of farmers to the use of LKP in irrigated lowland rice production centers in South Bengkulu Regency which is related to mobility, interactive, communicative, and autonomous.

Survey respondents
The research was conducted from September to November 2022 in three rice production centres subdistricts in South Bengkulu Regency, namely Seginim, Air Nipis, and Kedurang.Data collection was carried out through a survey involving 87 farmers in 42 villages.The unit of analysis used in the survey was individual farmers representing a stretch of irrigated rice farmer groups.The determination of respondents was coordinated with field agricultural extension officers at the research location.

Data collection
The data were collected is application of rice cultivation technology at the farmer level, rice cultivation technology recommendations produced by LKP, farmers' responses to LKP recommendations, and farmers' responses to attributes of LKP application.Data on farmers' responses using a nominal scale (Table 1).

Variable description
Variable values Farmers' response to location-specific recommendation of lowland rice cultivation technology by LKP 0 = not good 1 = good Farmers' response to LKP service attributes: 1.The mobility attribute, namely explaining the ability of farmers to access LKP facilities from various places determined by the availability of internet signals 2. The interactive attribute is the ability of LKP facilities to meet the needs of farmers in determining recommendations 3. The communicative attribute is related to the farmer's ability to understand the recommendations produced by the LKP facility 4. The autonomous attribute is related to the ability of farmers to operate LKP facilities without requiring much assistance from other people

Data analysis
Data analysis was carried out descriptively and inferentially.The correlation between farmers' responses to the recommendations generated by LKP with the attribute of LKP services was analyzed inferentially using the contingency coefficient.Correlation analysis using a contingency coefficient is suitable for testing the correion between two variables on a nominal scale [15] .The contingency coefficient correlation equation is described as follows [16].
Then, χ 2 is calculated by the equation, Where, C = contingency coefficient, n = number of observations, χ 2 = chi-square statistics, Oij = frequency of observations in i-row and j-column (in cell ij), Eij = expected frequency in i-row and jcolumn (in cell ij).
Correlation test was conducted to find out whether there is a relationship between farmer's response variable to LKP recommendations and farmer's response variable to the service attributes in the chisquare distribution.The test hypothesis is as follows: Ho : There is no correlation between variables if the value of 2 count < 2 table Ha : There is a correlation between variables if 2 count > 2 table 2 table 0.05; V= (2-1) x (2-1) = 3.841

Application level of rice cultivation technology
Rice cultivation in production centers in South Bengkulu Regency is supported by the availability of adequate technical irrigation so that the availability of water during the growing season is sufficient.Farmers plant rice twice a year, namely during the rainy season (January to April) and the dry season (August to November) with a cropping pattern of paddy-paddy or paddy-secondary crops.Land preparation is done using a tractor.Farmers plant rice with a transplanting system with a tile (tegel) or double row (legowo) system (have not inserted plants in the edge cropping rows).The spacing used is relatively wide, which is more than 20 x 20 cm.The seeds are planted after more than 21 days in the nursery.Farmers generally do not use certified superior rice varieties and do not fertilize rice plants according to recommendations.Fertilization is carried out using subsidized fertilizers, namely Urea and NPK Phonska, but this is not to the needs of the plants.Rice is fertilized twice in the early growth phase and active tillers are adjusted to the funds owned by farmers.Pest and disease control is carried out by applying pesticides from the beginning of the plant growth phase and has not yet applied integrated pest control techniques.Rice harvesting is done by mowing and threshing the grain using a power thresher.The harvest is sold in the form of harvested dry unhusked rice to collectors.The remaining harvested straw is burned and has not been processed into organic fertilizer which can be returned to paddy fields.
Based on the explanation above, the rice cultivation system that has been implemented by farmers in irrigated lowland rice production centers in South Bengkulu is not to the recommendations.The application of technology that is not by the recommendations causes the average rice productivity to be relatively low in South Bengkulu Regency [12].A comparison of existing farmer technology with LKP recommendations is presented in Table 2.  2 shows that all the technological components applied by farmers, namely the planting system, seed use, fertilization, pest and disease control, and post-harvest management of straw, are not by LKP recommendations.Limited knowledge and skills of farmers in the application of rice cultivation technology are thought to be the main obstacles in not implementing irrigated rice technology by the recommendations.(17).The rice varieties used are superior varieties such as Cigeulis, Ciherang, Mekongga, and IR64.Most of the seeds used are not certified, which were obtained from previous harvests that have been passed down from generation to generation.The use of non-certified seeds will reduce input efficiency and rice farming profits (18), so the use of certified seeds is highly recommended (19).
Spacing that is too wide is not recommended in rice cultivation because it will reduce the total plant population.The recommended spacing for irrigated lowland rice cultivation is 20x20 cm or a 2:1 legowo cropping system with a spacing of 25x25x with an insertion of 12.5 cm in the edges of the crop rows [17] .The rice varieties used are superior varieties such as Cigeulis, Ciherang, Mekongga, and IR64.Most of the seeds used are not certified, which were obtained from previous harvests that have been non-certified.The use of non-certified seeds will reduce input efficiency and rice farming profits [18], so the use of certified seeds is highly recommended [19].
Recommendations for fertilizing irrigated lowland rice are recommended three times, namely in the early phase of growth, active tillers, and productive tillers [17] .Setting the timing of fertilization according to plant needs will increase the efficiency of fertilizer use [20] .).In addition, returning straw or adding organic matter to paddy fields will increase nutrient availability.Therefore, the combination of using inorganic and organic fertilizers in semi-organic farming systems will increase plant productivity [20].Pest and disease control that is not carried out properly through integrated pest control will result in less effective and efficient control methods.Implementation of integrated pest management by considering the economic threshold in rice cultivation will ensure the sustainability of rice farming [21,22].
Farmers' motivation and knowledge influence farmers to adopt rice cultivation technology [23] , including experience and interactions with surrounding farmers [24] , as well as the level of cosmopolitan farmers, skills, extension support, and ease of access to information technology [25] .Therefore, to increase the adoption of irrigated lowland rice technology, location-specific technology guidelines are needed that can be used as a reference by farmers.The use of the LKP application can be an alternative for farmers in location-specific rice cultivation because it is easily accessible.LKP recommendations can be utilized by agricultural extension workers as extension tools to encourage increased productivity of irrigated lowland rice.

Farmers' response to LKP recommendations
Farmers' response to site-specific recommendations produced by LKP based on the dominant survey results was quite good.Only 16.09% of farmers had an unfavorable response to the LKP recommendations (Figure 1).The farmer's good response was allegedly due to the recommendations for lowland rice cultivation that were produced which were site-specific recommendations by the conditions of the farmer's rice fields based on filling out the LKP application.The good response of farmers to LKP recommendations indicates that farmers have confidence in the use of artificial intelligence-based digital technology.The research results also confirm that technology recommendations generated through digital applications in rice cultivation in Indonesia are well responded by farmers [26,27], and can increase knowledge and the level of technology adoption in rice farming [28].
In addition to having a good response to the rice cultivation technology recommendations produced by LKP, farmers also respond well to the LKP service attributes (Table 3).Table 3 shows that the mobility, interactive, and communicative attributes were responded to well by farmers, with values above 95%.This means that almost all farmers stated that the LKP application was easy to access because of the availability of an internet network at the research location and farmers already using smartphones.The availability of internet networks is a key factor in modernizing agriculture in the form of smart farming or digital farming [29] .The technology recommendations produced by LKP are also easy to understand and according to the needs of farmers.The ease of accessing technology causes farmers' perceptions of digital-based technology information sources by using smartphones to be better than conventional methods [30].
Farmers responded to the autonomous attribute the lowest compared to other LKP service attributes.The skills to operate the LKP still need to be improved because only 74.71% of farmers can operate the LKP application independently.However, the skills in operating LKP will increase if farmers are often trained.Therefore, the role of extension workers is important to encourage farmers' skills improvement in operating the LKP application.

Correlation of farmers' responses to LKP recommendations with LKP service attributes
The correlation of farmers' responses to site-specific recommendations with the LKP service attributes is shown in Table 4.  4 shows that from the response of farmers to the attributes of LKP services, only the interactive aspect has a significant positive relationship with the response of farmers to site-specific rice cultivation recommendations.This means that the higher the farmer's need for site-specific technology in rice cultivation, the higher their response to LKP recommendations.Opportunities to increase the efficiency and productivity of rice farming seem to be something of interest to lowland rice farmers in South Bengkulu Regency.This can be achieved by utilizing site-specific technologies offered through LKP recommendations.Precision farming will increase the efficiency and IOP Publishing doi:10.1088/1755-1315/1297/1/0120047 effectiveness of farming [31].The use of information and communication technology will increase the interest of farmers in implementing it [30].

Conclusions
The results showed that the response of farmers to LKP recommendations for location-specific lowland rice cultivation in South Bengkulu Regency was quite good.As many as 83.91% of farmers responded well to these recommendations while 16.09% of other farmers did not respond well to these recommendations.Farmers' response to LKP service attributes is good.More than 90% of farmers responded well to the communicative, interactive, and mobility attributes, namely 98.95%, 96.55%, and 95.40% respectively.Meanwhile, the response to the autonomous attribute by farmers was lower, namely 74.71%.
Farmers' responses to LKP recommendations are significantly positive correlate with farmers' responses to interactive attribute.Increasing need for site-specific rice cultivation technology to raise productivity and farming efficiency will increase farmers' interest to use LKP technology recommendations.

Table 2 .
Comparison of the existing technology with LKP recommendations.

Table 3 .
Farmers' response to LKP service attributes.

Table 4 .
Correlation of farmers' responses to LKP recommendations with LKP service attributes.