Unequal resilience: adaptive strategies among smallholder farmers in Indonesia

This study examines how production and selling price pressures shape adaptive strategies among smallholder rice farmers in West Java, Indonesia, a region where rising input costs and unstable rice prices have intensified livelihood vulnerability and eroded farm resilience. Using survey data from 171 farmers, analysed with partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM), the results show that price volatility is the strongest trigger of adaptation. A key contribution is the finding that adaptation itself enhances visibility and access to institutional support, reversing the common assumption that policy access precedes adaptive behaviour. Multi-group analysis highlights intersectional disparities, as men, larger landholders, and more educated farmers gain disproportionate benefits from adaptation-to-policy pathways. Policy implications are twofold: market stabilisation measures must complement subsidies, and inclusive outreach is required to address gender, education, and landholding inequalities. These insights extend resilience theory and the sustainable-livelihoods framework, while informing more equitable agricultural transformation.