RELATIONSHIPS THE ROLE OF FARM GROUP WITH RICE FARMER SOCIAL STATUS IN CIALAM JAYA VILLAGE KONDA SUB DISTRICT SOUTH KONAWE DISTRICT

This study aims to determine the relationship between the role of farmer groups and the social status of lowland rice farmers in Cialam Jaya Village, Konda Sub District, South Konawe District. This research was conducted in Cialam Jaya Village in September-December 2019. The determination of the research area was carried out purposively with the consideration that Cialam Jaya Village is one of the centres for lowland rice production and has farmer groups. Simple random sampling (simple random sampling) takes 10% or as many as 26 respondents of rice farmers. The data analysis used was the Spearman Rank Correlation analysis. The results showed that the role of the group was significantly related to the socioeconomic status of lowland rice farmers, with a significance value of 0.019.


INTRODUCTION
Farmers' groups are institutions in agricultural activities that can provide significant benefits both on increased production and the welfare of farmers (Christina, 2019). Pusluhtan (2002) explains that the development of farmer groups aims to empower farmers to have independent power capable of implementing innovation (technical, social and economic), utilize the principles of economies of scale, and face business risks to obtain decent income and welfare. increase after joining a farmer group (Prasetia et al., 2015); (Ahmad, 2016); (Nuryanti & Swastika, 2016); (Mawarni et al., 2017) Seeing the potential, farmers need to be nurtured and empowered further to grow optimally. With the existence of farmer groups, farmers can solve problems in the form of maintenance of agricultural production facilities, production technicians and marketing of products (Wuysang, 2014). The role of farmer groups includes study classes, cooperation vehicles and production units (Mardikanto, 1993); (Handayani et al., 2019); (Maulana, 2019). The role of farmer groups is significantly related to improving social status (education, function, health and income) (Salam et al., 2017). One farming activity that makes the farmer group a supporting institution and supporter is rice paddy farming. According to Ilham (2020), rice is a significant commodity with strategic value, so it needs serious handling to increase productivity.
South Konawe District is one of Southeast Sulawesi Province that is the centre of rice production. Data from the Central Statistics Agency (2020) shows that the harvested area of paddy fields in the South Konawe District is 33,108 ha, with a paddy land area of 21,619 ha. Konda subdistrict as an area where most people cultivate paddy fields contributes to the development of paddy fields in South Konawe District with 9,975 tons on an area of 2,513 ha of paddy fields. Cialam Jaya village is one of the villages in Konda Subdistrict, South Konawe District, where most of the resident's livelihoods as rice farmers. Cialam Jaya village has an area of 406.00 Ha with 493 households consisting of 1,835 people. And also has a paddy land area of 215,000 Ha. This paddy eISSN: 2656-4270 land is detailed according to its type, namely technical irrigation 48.00 Ha, semi-technical irrigation 81.00 Ha and rain catchment of 86.00 Ha (Village Data, 2018). The farmer group in Cialam Jaya Village, Konda Subdistrict, South Konawe District, consists of seven farmer groups with an average membership of approximately 37 farmers from each farmer group. The seven farmer groups are running well. The existence of farmer groups in Cialam Jaya Village, Konda Subdistrict, South Konawe District has brought many benefits, especially in increasing its social status. Paddy farmers in Cialam Jaya Village are more encouraging and change with the presence of farmer groups. The social level of education, role, health and income will increase more than the previous social status of paddy farmers. Several indicators used to describe the group of farmers are expected to provide a role for the social status of rice farmers. The farmer groups include study classes, cooperation vehicles and production units (Mardikanto, 1993).
The problem that often arises is that farmer groups have not been able to maximize the management of existing resources so that the capacity of farmer groups is usually in place. In the formation of farmers 'groups, using two approaches, namely: first, the spread approach, that is, the appearance of farmers' groups is done based on the spread of rice fields without looking at the administrative area. Second, the administrative area approach is forming farmer groups based on the village administrative area. Related to the path to the formation of the farmer group, there is still a misunderstanding among village officials in Cialam Jaya in Konda Sub District.
Based on these conditions, it is interesting to research the "Relationship between the Role of Farmers' Groups with the Social Status of Paddy Farmers in Cialam Jaya Village, Konda Sub District, South Konawe District."

MATERIALS AND METHODS
The research was conducted in September -December 2019 in Cialam Jaya Village, Konda Sub District, South Konawe District. The location of the study was determined deliberately with the consideration that Cialam Jaya Village is one of the centres of rice production and has a group of farmers. The population in this study is all rice farmers who are included in the farmer group in Cialam Jaya Village, Konda Sub District, South Konawe District. The research sample was 26 rice farmers who joined the farmer group. The sampling method uses the technique of Simple Random Sampling (simple random sampling).
Research data collection techniques include observations, interviews and recording methods. Types and sources of research data include primary data and secondary data. The variables observed in this study include the role of farmer groups (study class, production unit, and vehicle of cooperation) and social status (education, position, health and income). The data analysis used in this study is Spearman Rank Correlation analysis (Sugiono, 2012).

Identity of Respondent
According to Soeharjo and Patong (1984), on the age range of agricultural workers, age 15-54 years is categorized as productive age, while period 0-14 years and 54 years and above is classified as non-productive age. The results showed that more respondents entered the effective age category, 22 people or 84.62 per cent, than the non -productive age as many as four people or 15.38 per cent. This means that farmers' physical ability and thinking ability in Cialam Jaya Village is still practical. Soeharjo & Patong (1984) stated that the relatively high level of education and young age cause a person to be more likely to be dynamic, which is reflected through working, thought patterns and ease in accepting innovations and new information. The results showed that the level of education of respondents farmers is more dominant at the elementary and junior high school levels. Soeharjo and Patong (1984) stated that entrepreneurial experience is said to be quite experienced if they have been in business for 5-10 years, while ten years and above are categorized as professional and less than five years are classified as less experienced and more than ten years are categorized as experienced. The results show that rice farmers in Cialam Jaya Village are generally experienced in rice farming.

The Role of Paddy Farmers Group in Cialam Jaya Village
The role of the paddy rice farmers group in Cialam Jaya Village, Konda Subdistrict consists of the role of the farmers' group as a study class, as a vehicle for cooperation and as a production unit. This follows the opinion (Mardikanto, 1993), which states that the role of farmer groups includes study eISSN: 2656-4270 classes, vehicles of cooperation, and production units. The part of paddy farmers in Cialam Jaya Village can be seen in Table 1.  Table 1 shows that the role of rice farmers in Cialam Jaya Village, Konda Sub District, still belongs to the medium category. This means that members of the farmer group have not used the farmer group as a place for farmers to acquire agricultural knowledge, as a place for farmers to motivate each other in farming, as a place for farmers to develop farming skills and as a place for farmers to solve their business problems adequately and able to play a role in improving the social status of paddy farmers in Cialam Jaya Village, Konda Sub District. This is different from the opinion according to Sumintaredja (2001) stated that the farmer group as a teaching and learning class is a container for each member to interact to improve knowledge, skills and attitudes in better farming, and profitable and behave more independently to achieve a more prosperous life. . This can be seen from members of farmers' groups who are less active in discussing in each meeting to discuss cultivation techniques and problems that occur in rice farming activities and fellow farmers group members are also less in informing about rice farming information in Cialam Jaya Village. This is in line with the statement of Yani (2020), who explained that the problem that often arises is also seen in group meetings that are not attended by a sufficient number of group members because perhaps group members feel the little benefit from the group meeting.
The role of farmers' groups as a vehicle for cooperation in rice farming activities in the village of Cialam Jaya is generally in the medium category, namely 16 people or 61.54 per cent. It is measured based on several indicators, including cooperation in the search for information on farmers; such as the search for agricultural commodities, factors of production (fertilizers and drugs) and info on market conditions, cooperation in the capital acquisition, and cooperation in enterprise management, including planning, implementation and evaluation (Arimbawa, 2004). This means that the farmer group has not fully cooperated between the farmer group members either in the procurement of fertilizers, capital drugs, or cooperation in disseminating information on rice farming activities and market conditions. This is in line with Danim's (2004) research which explains that group effectiveness depends on the willingness to work with group members who are bound by their duties, both when they solve problems and when working together.
The role of farmers as a production unit in Cialam Jaya Village is in the medium category (65.38%). This is because farmer groups in Cialam Jaya Village have been able to produce products in farming and help other members of farmer groups in production activities (Tarigan, 2018). Sumintaredja (2001) explains that as a production unit, farmers' groups are agricultural units to realize cooperation in achieving a more profitable economic scale. Paddy farmers in Cialam Jaya Village, Konda Subdistrict, South Konawe District, agree with forming farmer groups to increase production.

Social Status of Paddy Farmers
Social status is a social condition based on economic position in which the characteristics achieved can affect mobility. Social status contains several aspects, namely education, role, health, and income. The social status of rice farmers in Cialam Jaya Village can be seen in Table 2.  Table 2 shows that the social status of rice farmers in Cialam Jaya Village is in the high category (53.85%). This means that the social level of rice farmers in Cialam Jaya Village has a good role for farmers. This is shown by several indicators of increasing the social status of rice farmers in the village of Cialam Jaya, including education, position, health and income. This is supported by Firmansyah (2012), who stated that high and low socioeconomic status is determined by several indicators, including education, employment, income, and decision-making.
The social status of farmers based on education in Cialam Jaya Village is in the medium category (57.69%). This means that the social rate of rice farmers in education in Cialam Jaya Village has improved quite well for farmers. This is evidenced by the existence of farmer groups in the village of Cialam Jaya. The quality of education and knowledge of the farming group members becomes more improved both formal and non -formal education. Residents with a high level of education are assumed to have high skills and abilities to absorb modern technology and increase production.
The social status of farmers based on the aspect of role in Cialam Jaya Village is in the medium category (65.38%). This shows that each of the members of the rice farmers group in Cialam Jaya Village plays a role both in saprodi procurement activities and in increasing production. The social status of farmers based on health aspects in Cialam Jaya Village is in the medium category (65.38%). This is evidenced by the health condition of rice farmers in Cialam Jaya Village, who are getting better and healthier in conducting farming activities. The social status of farmers in health has improved quite well for farmers in Cialam Jaya Village, Konda Sub District, South Konawe District.
The social status of farmers based on income aspects in Cialam Jaya Village is in the medium category (76.92%). This means that the social rate of farmers in terms of income in the village of Cialam Jaya has improved quite well for farmers. This is evidenced by many rice farmers in Cialam Jaya Village who can meet the needs of their lives and family members. The social status of farmers based on the amount of income has improved quite well for farmers in Cialam Jaya Village, Konda Sub District, South Konawe District.

The Relationship between the Role of Farmers' Groups in Improving the Social Status of Farmers
The relationship between the role of farmers and the social status of rice farmers in Cialam Jaya Village was analyzed using Spearman Rank Correlation Test. The results of the analysis can be seen in Table 3.  Table 3 shows a significant count of 0.019 <0.05. This indicates that the role of farmer groups with the social status of rice farmers in Cialam Jaya Village has a meaningful relationship. This is following the results of research conducted by Salam et al. (2017), who stated that the role of farmer groups is related to the improvement of the social status of rice farmers. If the position of farmers' groups continues to be improved, it will increase the social level of farmers, especially in paddy fields. The role of learning class farmer groups is closely related to improving farmers' social status, such as education, where learning classes play an important role in conducting formal and non -legal educational activities (Handayani et al., 2019); (Maulana, 2019). In the study class, farmers also have a role that can be applied in community life. Then the part of farmers' groups in the vehicle of cooperation is significantly related to improving the social status of farmers in Cialam Jaya Village, in creating good education there must be good cooperation between farmers' groups in farming, and the vehicle of collaboration can also serve as a gathering place for members of farmers' groups. The role of farmers 'groups is a vehicle for cooperation between farmers' groups to produce good collaboration.
The role of farmers' groups as production units is closely related to improving the social status of farmers in Cialam Jaya Village. Production units play an active role in the creation of quality agricultural products. Farmers 'groups must have good health to manage the land well and support farmers' rice farming activities. Farmer groups that play a good role will encourage the improvement of the social status of farmers. With the role of farmers 'groups as learning classes, vehicles of cooperation and production units have increased entrepreneurship, education, cooperation networks eISSN: 2656-4270 and farmers' economy so that the social status of farmers has improved for the better (Mawarni et al., 2017)

CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTION
The results showed that the relationship between the role of farmer groups with the improvement of the social status of rice farmers in Cialam Jaya Village, Konda Sub District, South Konawe District is quite strong with a significance value of 0.019. There is a need for efforts to increase the role of farmer groups in rice farming activities to encourage the improvement of the social status of farmers in Cialam Jaya Village, Konda Sub District, South Konawe District.