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The relationship between ICT, the financial sector, and output growth has been extensively studied, however, macro-economic studies with an emphasis on the role of rural ICT on agricultural performance are few and yield mixed findings. Additionally, past research has not given sufficient attention to how bank credit affects agricultural performance. This paper highlighted the dynamic effect of rural ICT penetration and bank credit on agricultural performance in Eastern Indonesia. We used secondary data taken from the Central Bureau of Statistics and the Financial Services Authority. The panel data covered 16 provinces of eastern Indonesia from the first semester of 2010 to the second semester of 2022 (2010S1-2022S2). Using the panel autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) approach, the results showed that in the long run, rural ICT penetration and bank credit played a significant role in boosting agricultural performance. However, in the short run, the impact of rural ICT penetration and bank credit on agricultural performance was statistically insignificant. Finally, we recommended several important policies that can practically impact and contribute to improving agricultural performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reducing pesticides is an important driver in preserving a healthy and sustainable environment and protecting human health. In the digital era, understanding the role of information and communication technology (ICT) on pesticide use in crucial. Therefore, This study aim to estimate the impact of ICT on farmers' pesticide used. This study uses a cross-sectional data from a survey to 150 farmers in Indonesia. Furthermore, the data is analyzed by ordinary least square (OLS) and instrumental variable quantile regression (IVQR). The main results indicate that ICT has an essential impact on pesticide used reduction. Farmers who has access on the ICT tend to use lower pesticide that the farmers who did not use the ICT. The IVQR results, make the claim more robust, which is show a negative and significant impact of ICT on farmers pesticide use in all quartile groups. Therefore, this finding implies that there is a need to develop agriculture related ICT continuously among smallholder farmers to reduce the pesticide use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Crude Palm Oil (CPO) industry is one of the plantation commodities that has a strategic role in Indonesia's economic development. The number of companies and CPO production is always increasing, but the concentration of the industry that always decreases every year makes it important to analyze the factors that affect the concentration of the CPO industry in Indonesia. The data period used in this study was from 2001 to 2020. In this study, data sources were obtained from the Central Bureau of Statistics (BPS) Indonesia, Word Bank, and UN Comtrade. The data analysis method used is regression analysis of the Error Correction Model (ECM). The results showed that technical efficiency has a negative and significant relationship both in the long and short term to the concentration of the CPO industry. Competitiveness in the long term has a positive and significant relationship, while in the short term it is negative but not significant to the concentration of the Indonesian CPO industry. In the long run, the relationship between RSPO and Indonesia's CPO industry concentration tends to be negative but not significant, while in the short term it shows a significant influence. World CPO prices, both long-term and short-term, provide a positive and significant correlation to the concentration of the Indonesian CPO Industry. Indonesia's CPO exports in the long and short term have a negative and significant effect on the concentration of the Indonesian CPO industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]