Economic Coping Strategy for Poor Households in Jambi Province

Abstract

Rural poverty is one of the crucial issues in development in Jambi Province. Therefore, poverty alleviation efforts and improving the welfare of rural communities have become development priorities in this area. In poor households, improving welfare is basically inseparable from how the family implements coping strategies to get out of a vulnerable condition by using various available resources. Based on this, this study aims to analyze the economic coping strategies of poor households in rural Jambi Province. Furthermore, specifically, the researcher will conduct a comparative study on food crop farming households with plantation crops. The two commodities were chosen because they were the main source of livelihood for the population in rural Jambi Province. The data used were sourced from surveys in four rural areas. The sample of this research is two districts in Jambi Province, namely Merangin Regency and Tanjung Jabung Timur Regency. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and statistical difference tests. The results showed that the economic coping strategy of poor rural households was still low, both in the context of passive strategies (cutting-back expenses) and active strategies (income generating strategy). This certainly has an impact on the resilience of poor households when facing economic pressures. Plantation households have a lower economic coping strategy than food crop farming households.