Employing an ordinal logistic regression model in examining the determinants of maize yield in Bantaeng Regency, Indonesia

Indonesia is one of the top 10 maize-producing countries, accounting for 2.2% of global production. South Sulawesi Province in Indonesia is a major maize-producing region, and Bantaeng Regency is one of its key production centers. Therefore, this study aimed to analyze the effect of production input use and farmer characteristics on maize production in Bantaeng Regency. The primary data were collected from 148 maize farmers through structured interviews using a pre-designed questionnaire. The data were analyzed using ordinal logistic regression. The results indicated that all independent variables had a significant effect on maize production simultaneously. Then, the partial test results showed that the variables of land area, urea fertilizer, herbicide, farm capital, farming experience, and years of farmer education have a positive and significant effect on maize production. Meanwhile, seed, NPK fertilizer, labor, and farmer age had a significantly negative impact on production. These findings provide valuable data and offer significant insights for developing practical farm management strategies that sustainably improve maize production. The maize farmers who produce low and medium yields are advised to expand the area under maize cultivation, increase the use of urea fertilizers and herbicides to the optimal limit, increase farming capital, and increase farmers' knowledge and skills through education and training to improve the production. Meanwhile, high-producing farmers can increase their maize farming production through the use of quality-certified seeds, increased use of NPK fertilizer, and optimal use of labour. This strategy can certainly have an impact on increasing maize production, which in turn improves farmers' welfare. In addition, these efforts can maintain food security at both the district and national levels. Furthermore, these efforts can reduce maize imports in the coming years.