INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF RESEARCH IN BUSINESS AND SOCIAL SCIENCE 8(5)(2019) 258-265 * Corresponding author. ORCID ID: 0000-0001-7916-1891 Peer review under responsibility of Bussecon International Academy. © 2019 Bussecon International. Hosting by SSBFNET- Center for Strategic Studies in Business & Finance. All rights reserved. https://doi.org/10.20525/ijrbs.v8i5.477 Competitiveness of strategic food commodities in Lampung Province, Indonesia Wan Abbas Zakaria a* , Teguh Endaryanto b , Lidyasari Mas Indah c , Lina Marlina d , Indah Listiana e , a,b,c,d,e Department of Agricultural Economics and Social Sciences College of Agriculture, University of Lampung, Bandar Lampung, Indonesia A R T I C L E I N F O Article history: Received 28 July 19 Received in revs. form 12 August 19 Accepted 18 August 19 Keywords: Lampung Competitiveness Strategic food commodities JEL Classification: F31 O10 A B S T R A C T Food commodities play an important role in income increase of people, job opportunities, and regional and national development. Competitiveness of food commodities needs for community welfare increase and national food security and sovereignty. The aims of this research were: (1) to analysis of competitiveness of strategic food commodities in Lampung Province, (2) to analyze the impact of changes of input and output prices against of strategic food commodities in Lampung Province, and (3) to know the policy of suitable minimum prices of strategic food commodities in Lampung Province. This research conducted in Lampung Province from September 2013 to September 2014. The regencies as a sample selected by purposive sampling were Middle Lampung, North Lampung, South Lampung, and East Lampung. The determination of the farmers used stratified simple random sampling. The sample in this study was 120 respondents. The results showed that the farming of strategic food commodities (paddy and corn) had PCR and DCR value less than one point. Strategic food commodities had lesser value due to an increase in fertilizer price and a decline in output prices. The competitiveness of strategic food commodities in Lampung Province was sensitive to output prices decrease. The policy of the minimum price of paddy at least two times greater than the price of corn. © 2019 Bussecon International Academy. Hosting by SSBFNET. All rights reserved. Peer review under responsibility of Bussecon International Academy & SSBFNET. Introduction Agricultural development intends to achieve competitive and sustainable industrial agriculture based on local resources, to expand food security and nutrition, to improve food diversification, to increase value, competitiveness, and export, as well as to increase welfare and income. To achieve those goals, Ministry of Agriculture has set prime target, i.e.: achieve rice self and sustainable sufficiency in production, improvement food diversification, increase added value and export, and improvement of farmers welfare (KementerianPertanian, 2009). Although Lampung Province is the center of rice and corn production, some areas in the region still experiencing problems that could affect the availability of food. Farm land for food commodities has decreased in some areas. The decrease is due to land conversion, from food commodities into plantation crops such as rubber, oil palm and cocoa, which is done by farmers. In this paper, data were obtained from the Department of Agriculture and Horticulture (PTPH) Lampung, agricultural land conversion has reached 38.31 percent of total the land area of 447 thousand hectares (ha). The decreased of farm land affect the production of important agricultural commodities in Lampung, namely rice and maize. In addition, the attacks of various diseases causethe decrease of quality and quantity of crops resulting in low prices. Low selling prices and high production costs caused low profits. Research in Business & Social Science IJRBS VOL 8 NO 5 ISSN: 2147-4478 Available online at www.ssbfnet.com Journal homepage: https://www.ssbfnet.com/ojs/index.php/ijrbs