Farm Owners’ Perception toward Farmland Conversion: An Empirical Study from Indonesian Municipality

Abstract

Malang Municipality, the second-largest municipality in East Java Province, has a role as an education and business growth pole. The increasing housing and public service demands in the area correspond with the population growth. It then triggers agricultural conversion, which is predicted to be fully converted in 2024 without any control measurement. Therefore, farm owners have an essential role in agricultural land use. The present study aimed to identify the factors that affect farm owners’ decisions in converting their lands. This study employed correlation analysis to determine the factors influencing the degree of intention to convert farmers’ farmland to settlement. This present study addressed farmland conversion intention, socio-economic factors of farm owner, land use condition, and spatial regulation based on farm owners’ perception. The results showed that the degree of farmland conversion corresponded with the importance of the variable to land conversion. This study demonstrated that farm owners’ perceptions were important and had an essential role in farmland conversion. Moreover, the upcoming regulation should address farm owners’ perception along with tangible variables, such as total income.