Farm Sustainability Assessment and Model: Achieving Food Security through the Food Estate Program in North Sumatra

Abstract

Improving food crop production is critical for achieving food security. The Food Estate (FE) program initiated by the government seeks to accomplish this through extensive and intensive farming practices while taking sustainability into consideration. In this paper, a multidimensional scaling (MDS) approach to determine the status and model of agricultural sustainability of the FE program was adopted. Three scenarios were developed to improve the sustainability status based on primary data from interviews with 50 farmers in Ria-Ria Village, Pollung District, North Sumatra. The findings indicate that the farming status is at a moderate sustainability, and improving all aspects can significantly increase the sustainability value. The study suggests that the government should prioritize the improvement of all aspects to raise the sustainability status of FE farming in order to achieve food security.