Horticultural Development and Its Welfare Implications on Agricultural Household Education Investment in Indonesia

Promoting horticultural crop adoption is a widespread development strategy in developing countries to augment agricultural households income. Other than the income effects demonstrated in previous research, horticultural farming's indirect welfare effects such as child education are less well understood. Educational investment is vital for rural development and long-term agricultural productivity. This study analyzes how horticultural farming affects agricultural household education investment, using cross-sectional data of Indonesian Family Life Survey covering seven provinces in Eastern Indonesia (IFLS East). The multiple outcome variables include education spending, number of hours spent in school, and grade repetition. The possible endogeneity of horticultural farming is carefully addressed through instrumental variables estimation. The overall result indicates a positive impact of horticultural farming on child education spending for primary school children in both genders. We also found negative effects of staple crop farming on education spending and number of hours spent in school. This research contributes to existing empirical research in horticultural development, demonstrating horticultural crop adoption would not only increase household income but also household education investment. Acknowledgement