Household Scale-Low Input Farming for Community Food Self-Sufficiency After the Covid-19 Pandemic in Yogyakarta Special Region Province, Indonesia

Population growth increases the demand for world food needs. Meanwhile, the agricultural sector’s challenges are increasing due to reduced agricultural land, climate change, and natural disasters. The covid-19 pandemic teaches us the importance of precision agriculture to produce optimal food products with minimal input. This study aims to introduce low-input farming practices at the household scale. Low-input farming (LIF) was chosen because its production costs are relatively low with low inputs. Low-input farming is an agricultural practice that maximizes the use of land resources, ensures the achievement of profits, minimizes environmental damage and negative impacts, and prevents adverse effects on health. The study was carried out in partnership with women farmer groups. This study introduced three main programs to support food self-sufficiency at the household scale: hydroponics, aquaponics, and training in processing processed food products made from fish. The selection of program types was determined based on the community's needs following the community's economic capacity to provide inputs in cultivating food crops on a household scale. Intensive assistance was also carried out by a team of experts from agronomy, environmental science, and food technology to ensure the successful implementation of the program. In addition, agricultural inputs with hydroponics in planting media, seeds, and fertilizers are available at low and affordable prices with optimal yields. Meanwhile, for aquaponics, the cultivation of vegetable and fish were introduced in one cultivation medium. The selected plants and fish were species that can grow easily in various climatic conditions and were widely consumed by the community. The training on processing processed food products from fish continues the other two programs. This program increases the knowledge of farmer groups to process fish so that it can increase the added value of fish harvests as well as for household consumption.