Root causes of underutilisation of assisted agricultural machinery on rice production in Indonesia

Several studies have shown that government-assisted agricultural machinery to increase rice production is underutilised optimally. This study aims to identify the problem of this non-optimality. This study employed the Root Cause Analysis (RCA) method with the Cause Effect Diagram (CED) and used data collected from in-depth interviews with 60 experts, who were selected deliberately. Respondents interviewed used the five whys analysis (FWA) technique to investigate the causal relationships of why agricultural machinery was underutilised and to choose policy alternatives employing the prospective simulations approach. The root causes of the non-optimal use of agricultural machinery consist of the suitability of the types of machinery, the limited number and lack of human resource capacities, the business environment, and business management. Policy and program synchronisation and synergy between local and central governments are needed to resolve the root causes of optimising the use of agricultural machinery to increase rice production.