The Analysis of Factors Affecting Farmers' Accessibility Towards Markets and Its Relation to Farmers' Bargaining Position

As the largest banana producing district in Central Kalimantan, currently most of the banana farmers in Seruyan Regency still rely on middleman to collect their crops. There are several factors that allegedly influence farmers in determining the choice of selling their crops to middleman rather than selling directly to the market. The purpose of this research is to analyze the factors that influence the accessibility of farmers to the market and to analyze the relationship between farmer's market accessibility and the bargaining position of farmers toward middleman. The respondents were farmers from the largest producer of banana kepok namely Seruyan Hilir and Seruyan Hilir Timur sub-districts. The method usedwas purposive sampling method and the data was collected in July 2017. The data were analyzed using partial structural equation model (PLS-SEM) with the main variablesare motivation, knowledge, ability to access infrastructure, bond with the middleman, involvement in farmer group, negotiation ability, market accessibility, and bargaining position of farmers. Based on the results of analysis, the knowledge, motivation, ability to access infrastructure and bond with the middleman have significant effect on the accessibility of farmers to the market. The bargaining position of farmers is significantly influenced by the accessibility of farmers to the market.


INTRODUCTION
Since the last few years, Seruyan Regency has been able to contribute as the largest banana production in Central Kalimantan compared to other districts. Based on data of Central Kalimantan fruit production in 2015, banana production contribution of Seruyan Regency is as much as 67,343 quintal. When compared to other districts, the largest production contribution is only 36,834 quintals given by Kotawaringin Barat Regency (Central Kalimantan BPS, 2016).
The high production of bananas in Seruyan Regency does not seem to be proportional to the amount of fruit demand by local consumers. Consequently, the bananas produced from this district are distributed almost mostly to markets outside the city. There are three main destination cities of banana distribution produced by Seruyan Regency; they are Sampit, Palangkaraya, and Banjarmasin.
The relatively long distance between the farmers' lands DQG WKH RXWVLGH PDUNHW DUHD FORVHVW GLVWDQFH NP makes most farmers unable to reach the market. This condition makes the farmers use intermediary traders as a bridge between farmers and consumers. Permadi (2017) shows that banana kepok farmers in Seruyan District mostly prefer to use distribution channel (Farmer-Middleman-Retailer-Consumers) rather than distribute them directly (Farmers-Consumers).
There are some positive and negative impacts with the existence of marketing agency for farmers. In fact, marketing agencies can help farmers reach consumers especially at locations which are quite far from farmers. On the other hand, the involvement of marketing agencies, as intermediary traders or middlemen (as collectors and retailers traders), will reduce the share received by farmers because there are price differences between farmers and consumers. As Karthikeyan (2016) said that the length of chain from farmers to the consumers can take most of the share that should be accepted by the farmers. According to a research conducted by Permadi (2017), it shows that the consumer and farmer price margin in some distribution channels of banana kapok from Seruyan regency ranges from Rp1,723.2-Rp2,065.6 per kilogram.
Market access is no less important than production issues because a market is a place where the crop SURGXFWLRQ IURP IDUPHUV FDQ EH FRQYHUWHG LQWR EHQH¿WV and contributes to the obtained income and prosperity of the farmers' families. Therefore, the ability of farmers to access the market largely determines how much the share will be received by them.
According to Soekartawi (2002), one of the weaknesses of agricultural systems in developing countries, including ,QGRQHVLD LV WKH ODFN RI DWWHQWLRQ WR WKH PDUNHWLQJ ¿HOG Since farmers do not get market information clearly, it ¿QDOO\ UHVXOWLQJ LQ WKH HFRQRPLF RSSRUWXQLW\ ZKLFK LV TXLWH GLI¿FXOW WR DFKLHYH +HLQPHQ DUJXHV WKDW the reason why most rural people cannot improve their OLYHV LV EHFDXVH WKH\ IDFH GLI¿FXOWLHV LQ DFFHVVLQJ WKH market. They can get agricultural input but they do not have the ability to sell to consumers. Magesa et al. (2014) says that due to poor access to agricultural markets, rural farmers have for long relied on traders DQG RWKHU PLGGOHPHQ WR JDLQ PRUH SUR¿W Opening market access is one of the obligations, especially for the government as a stakeholder. So far, the inability of farmers to access the market is only considered as the inability of farmers in accessing transportation facilities. In fact, there are several other factors that may also have big roles in determining the ability of farmers to access markets. Understanding WKH IDFWRUV ZKLFK FDQ LQÀXHQFH PDUNHW DFFHVV LV UHDOO\ important so that the policies taken can be targeted according to actual needs.
According to Gatare et al. (2015), the problem of market access can be considered based on the following three dimensions: physical access to markets; market structure; and lack of skills, information and producer organizations. Physical access in question includes the access to transportation infrastructure. The information included is the knowledge of price and competitors. In relation to producer organizations, Irianto (2008) also states that the formation of farmer groups is one strategy that can be done to help farmers access the market. Suryono et al. (2016) suggests that motivation also has an effect on increasing market access capability.
The ignorance and inability of farmers to reach the consumer market make farmers depends on intermediary traders. This also affects farmers who do not have a strong bargaining position against intermediary traders. Often, banana kapok farmers in Seruyan Regency cannot do much and take for granted the prices set by middlemen. Puspitasari (2015) states that one of the problems which farmers often face in Indonesia is that farmers still have a weak bargaining position in negotiating the selling price of their crops. The weak bargaining position of farmers is one of the obstacles in increasing farmers' income.
Based on the background above, the objectives of this UHVHDUFK DUH WR DQDO\]H WKH IDFWRUV ZKLFK LQÀXHQFH the accessibility of banana Kepok farmers in Seruyan Regency to the market, and 2) to analyze the relationship between market accessibility and the bargaining position of the farmers to the collecting traders.

METHODS
This research was conducted in Seruyan Regency, precisely in two sub-districts of biggest banana producers; they are Seruyan Hilir and Seruyan Hilir Timur Sub-district. The samples of farmers taken as respondents, were taken using purposive sampling method in accordance to the criteria of banana kepok farmers as many as 100 samples of farmers. The data collecting activity in respondents was conducted in July 2017.
The variables taken in this study were divided into two groups namely the main variables and characteristic variables. The main variables were the motivation, knowledge, and availability to infrastructure access, bonding with middlemen, activeness in farmer group, negotiation ability, market accessibility, and bargaining position of farmers. Meanwhile, the characteristic variables included were age, banana kapok farming experience, education, and number of family members. Ability to access infrastructure: is related to the ability of access to transportation facilities, communications, and information facilities that support marketing activities AK1 Ability to access transportation AK2 Ability to access communication facility AK3 Ability to access information Relation with middlemen: is about the mutually binding relationship between farmers and collecting traders or middlemen that are one-sided or two-sided which can hinder the farmers' movement in marketing their agricultural products. IK1 Availability of agreement with middlemen IK2 Availability of loan from middlemen IK3 Availability of pressure from middlemen Activity in farmer groups: is the involvement and livelihood of farmers in farmer organizations from the lowest level to the highest level KL1 Active in the organization of farmer groups KL2 Active in the marketing organization KL3 Active in embracing farmers Negotiation ability: is the ability of farmers in the bargaining process by negotiating to reach agreement of both parties NG1 Ability to bargain NG2 Ability to communicate NG3 $ELOLW\ WR LQÀXHQFH PLGGOHPHQ Market accessibility: is the ability of farmers to access markets and all things related that can facilitate farmers to sell their crops AS1 Ease in entering the market AS2 Ease in reaching the market AS3 Ease in getting market information AS4 Ease in distributing production to market The bargaining position of farmers: is the ability of farmers to dominate the decision-making process of the FURSV VDOH DQG WKH DELOLW\ IRU QRW WR EH HDVLO\ LQÀXHQFHG and or suppressed by others PO1 Participating in price determination PO2 Participating in the determination of purchase method PO3 Strength in facing the pressure of middlemen Data was collected using questionnaires and analyzed using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) with alternative method of Partial Least Square (PLS) using SmartPLS 3.0 software application. According to Gultom et al. (2015), Abdillah and Jogiyanto (2015), one of the advantages of PLS was its reliability in testing predictive models without basing on assumptions, could be used to predict models with weak grounded theories, and could be used for small sized samples. This study had a framework of model analysis that aimed to facilitate researchers in understanding the purpose of research. Indicators available in any exogenous and endogenous latent variables that were analyzed with UHÀHFWLYH LQGLFDWRUV DV D ZKROH WKH\ DUH SUHVHQWHG LQ Figure 1.

The Characteristics of Respondents
Based on the research results on the respondents characteristics who were, still in the range of productive ages, despite there were about 28.00% of farmers whose aged were more than 50 years. The level of farmers' education was mostly low and there were even 12.00% of banana kapok farmers who did not complete elementary school (SD). The number of dependents of respondents mostly was more than 2 members in one family. Observing most of the respondent's ages, it was reasonable that the respondents had more than 2 family members despite there were some respondents who only had one or two dependents. Viewed from the experience, farmers apparently had enough experience in banana kapok farming in which there were 62.00% of farmers had experience more than 10 years.

Farmers' Accessibility toward Market
Based on the results of the measurement model test using SmartPLS3 application as shown in Figure 2, it shows that there are 2 indicator variables (IK3, and PO3) which have less than 0.6. Loading factor value According to Ghozali and Latan (2015) a tolerable loading factor value for explanatory research must be between 0.6-0.7, so variable with loading factor less than 0.6 should be eliminated from the model to be able to perform hypothesis testing.  Farmers with narrow land who had less capital entrusted their agricultural production continuity to middlemen / traders. This resulted that during the post-harvest time of small-scale farmers were unable to determine freely where the farmers might sell their crops (Mahmudah and Harianto, 2014). The descriptive analysis showed that 25% of banana farmers in Seruyan District were connected to collecting traders or middlemen because of the agreement among them, despite it was not in the form of a written agreement but it became a scourge and fear for the farmers. They worried that in the future the middlemen would no longer take their crops. On the other hand, 14% of the farmers were also tied to capital loans with collecting traders or middlemen, so farmers also had to sell their crops to them, even though they knew there was a relatively large price difference on the market. The results showed that the UHODWLRQ WR PLGGOHPHQ KDG D VLJQL¿FDQW LPSDFW RQ market accessibility for farmers.  The farmers' motivation was also a variable that has D VLJQL¿FDQW LQÀXHQFH RQ PDUNHW DFFHVVLELOLW\ 7KHUH were as many as 79% of respondents who did not want to be bothered in selling their own crops outside the region. They thought that it was better to use their time to take care of their farms or other necessities rather than to sell their crops out of the area that took a long time because the location was quite far. It was in line with the evidence found by Makura et al. (2004) in Mukwevho and Anim (2014) that there was a negative correlation between farmland distance and market accessed by farmers.
Not all of the farmers had facilities to market their crops including the transportation, communication, or information. A very vital factor was the transportation in which usually only those who had their own vehicle (a pickup van or truck) that could sell their bananas out of the region. Farmers who did not have vehicles or farmers who could not access transportation easily, usually preferred to sell their bananas to collecting traders or middlemen. The result of descriptive analysis VKRZHG WKDW RI IDUPHUV KDG GLI¿FXOWLHV LQ DFFHVVLQJ transportation facilities.
In the modern era where information is widely open, LW LV DFWXDOO\ QRW WRR GLI¿FXOW IRU IDUPHUV WR DFFHVV DOO information related to the market. The Internet network coverage which has been reaching countryside areas can actually be really helpful for farmers to access various information including the market information. The problem that occurred recently was that there were only several farmers who were willing and able to use the available infrastructure facilities in accessing the information to support their farming activities. It could be seen from the respondents where there were only 22% of respondents who were able to access the available information facilities. Whereas, the ability to access the facilities was not only about accessing transportation facility, but communication and information were also two factors that played a big role in improving market accessibility. The research results by Urquieta and Nadezda (2009) indicated that farmers with cell phones would have better access to market information, which ZRXOG LQÀXHQFH WKHLU GHFLVLRQV RQ WKH VLWH DQG SULFH RI selling their products. Mobile phones also allowed the farmers to make transactions easily so that the product PDUNHWLQJ ZRXOG EH PRUH HI¿FLHQW Another variable that also affected the market accessibility was the knowledge variable. The role of NQRZOHGJH IDFWRU ZDV YHU\ VLJQL¿FDQW 3 YDOXH WKDQ RWKHU LQÀXHQWLDO IDFWRUV 7KLV ZDV LQ OLQH ZLWK Njeru statement (2015) that the limited knowledge of WKH PDUNHW ZRXOG PDNH LW GLI¿FXOW WR DFFHVV WKH PDUNHW itself. Farmers who had knowledge of potential buyers, prices, transaction methods, competitors, and how to enter the market would have more easy access to the market than farmers who did not have knowledge about some of those things. Farmers who had no knowledge XVXDOO\ ZRXOG JHW GLI¿FXOWLHV DQG ZRXOG XVXDOO\ IDLO to access the market. Syahza (2003) one of the main problems faced in the marketing of agricultural products was the low quality of human resources (especially farmers). Farmers' guidance tended to cultivation practices and did not lead to marketing practices. This caused the farmer's knowledge about marketing was still low, so the subsystem marketing became very weak and it seemed that the agribusiness system should be well built. Table 4 and Figure 2 show the results of the structural model testing that have been made.

Farmers' Bargaining Position Against Middlemen
Farmers' bargaining position in this study was the ability of farmers to dominate the decision-making process on the sale of crops and the ability not to be HDVLO\ LQÀXHQFHG DQG RU VXSSUHVVHG E\ RWKHU SDUWLHV in this case collecting traders or middlemen. Based on the results of the descriptive analysis, there were about 42% of respondents who said that they were not involved in determining the price of their banana Kepok to middlemen. It meant that farmers just followed the price set by middlemen without bargaining. In the case of determining the method of payment, whether it should be paid directly or paid in the future, there were about 48% of the farmers who let the middlemen determine the payment method.
If it was seen from how strong the respondents got the LQÀXHQFH RU SUHVVXUH IURP WKH PLGGOHPHQ LW VKRZHG that there were 23% of farmers who were afraid of the threat from the middlemen and worried if the middlemen would not buy their bananas again in the future. According to Ranjan (2017), one condition that could weaken the bargaining position of farmers was the condition where the intermediary traders or middlemen might leave the farmers to look for other DUHDV WKDW WKH\ FRQVLGHUHG PRUH SUR¿WDEOH Referring to the data shown in Figure 2, it could be concluded that the bargaining position of the respondent farmers i.e. banana kapok farmers in Seruyan Regency was relatively still weak. It was considered weak because there were still many farmers who just took for granted on what the middlemen determined.in terms of pricing and payment methods. On the other hand, DOWKRXJK WKH QXPEHU ZDV QRW WRR VLJQL¿FDQW LW FRXOG indicate the weak bargaining position of farmers.

Bargaining Position
The accessibility of farmers toward the market had a YHU\ UHDO LQÀXHQFH RQ WKH EDUJDLQLQJ SRVLWLRQ RI IDUPHUV with the middlemen with P-value 0.000 (Look at Table  5). If farmers had to sell their crops to middlemen, farmers with high market accessibility would have dominance in pricing and payment method decision with the middlemen. On the otherhand, farmers with low market accessibility would easily be controlled or LQÀXHQFHG HVSHFLDOO\ WKRVH ZKR ZHUH DOUHDG\ GHSHQGHQW on middlemen. Danau et al. (2011) suggested that farmers could use several strategies to increase their market power, either using collective strategies or individual strategies. One of the individual strategies that could increase the market power of farmers was by increasing direct production access to consumers. This was in line with the research conducted by Svensson andYanagizawa (2009) andShimamoto et al. (2014) who found that better access to market information could improve bargaining position of farmers, so farmers could sell their products at higher prices. Similarly, Yovo (2017) also found that the opening of market access, especially access to price information could improve the bargaining position of farmers.

Managerial implications
The inability of farmers to access the market was not only caused by the existence of bonds or relation between the farmers and the middlemen or the inability of farmers to access transportation facilities, but there ZHUH DOVR RWKHU IDFWRUV WKDW FRXOG LQÀXHQFH IDUPHUV decision to sell their crops to the middlemen.
The expected managerial implication of this research is that there must be an understanding of marketing management, both on farmers and related stakeholders, so that farmers can enjoy a reasonable part of their farming activities. If it is seen from the factors that have big impacts on the accessibility of farmers to the market, the government or related stakeholders have to pay attention to the steps in order to improve farmers' knowledge on all good information about target market objectives, price, competitors, transaction method and all things related to market.
In addition, in improving farmers' knowledge of the market, it is also important to increase farmers' access to markets by increasing farmers' ability to access existing infrastructure. The availability of transportation, communication, and information infrastructure will not be useful and even become useless if the farmers do not know how to use it.
Training on farmers is not only focusing on improving cultivation skills, but they must also be directed to improve the ability in utilizing the means or facilities to support marketing activities so the farmers can access the market easily. If the farmers have access to large markets, they will have great bargaining power, so they will not be easily deceived and suppressed by the middlemen. Although the farmers still use middlemen to market their crops, the dominance of pricing and payment methods is still in their hands, ultimately there ZLOO EH D UHDVRQDEOH VKDULQJ RI WKH EHQH¿WV IURP WKH products produced.

Conclusions
Based on the objectives and the results of the discussion in this study, it can be concluded that the knowledge variables, access to infrastructure, motivation, and ERQGLQJ ZLWK PLGGOHPHQ KDYH D VLJQL¿FDQW LPSDFW RQ the accessibility of farmers to the market. Meanwhile, the variable of negotiation ability and activeness in IDUPHU JURXS GR QRW KDYH DQ LQÀXHQFH WR IDUPHU DELOLW\ LQ DFFHVVLQJ PDUNHW )URP DOO LQÀXHQWLDO YDULDEOHV NQRZOHGJH YDULDEOH KDV WKH PRVW VLJQL¿FDQW LQÀXHQFH toward the market accessibility. Market accessibility KDV D UHODWLRQ DQG LV D IDFWRU WKDW VLJQL¿FDQWO\ LQÀXHQFHV the bargaining position of farmers against middlemen. The higher market accessibility by farmers will further strengthen the bargaining position against the middlemen.

Recommendations
Government as a stakeholder can help farmers improve their market knowledge by providing marketing training and improving access to transportation, communication and information. The easy access to capital is also one of the important things so that the farmers are not bound to the middlemen and it gives the opportunities to the farmers to freely choose where to sell their crops. Further research can be conducted to look at other factors besides market accessibility which may also affect the bargaining position of farmers against collecting traders or middlemen.