The Scene of a Transmigration Area in Sumatra

Abstract

The Garut study in the previous chapter found that the peasant marketing system in an old-settled upland area in West Java is highly efficient in the use of scarce capital, while at the same time, using local labour which has a low opportunity cost. The members of the well-integrated rural community in Garut each perform roles as farm producers, traders, processors and transporters, and together they make up a flexible and efficient network which reaches from farm producers to consumers through trading and processing. There is no sign of monopolistic pricing, while price differences at various points in the marketing chain are largely explained by marketing costs.

This chapter draws on Hayami et al. (1987) and Kawagoe and Hayami (1989).