Analysis of farmer purposes in raising local beef cattle breed: An Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) approach

Farmers raise cattle for various purposes, such as a source of cash income, investment function, and socio-cultural function. The research objective was to analyze farmers' preferences in raising Peranakan Ongole (PO) as local beef cattle breed based on the purpose of raising livestock. This study involved 8 farmers from Klaten District, Central Java. Klaten Regency was chosen as a research location because it received PO cows as a grant from the Ministry of Agriculture. Respondents were selected purposively according to the criteria of being a livestock group administrator and being experience in raising PO as local beef cattle breed for ≥10 years. Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) was applied to determine the priority of beef cattle criteria that are used by farmers to develop their business. There were three criteria and six factors used in this analysis. These criteria were cash income, investment function, and socio-culture function. Whereas, the six factors used were cattle breed, selling price, adaptability, reproductive ability, body size, and the physical appearance of the livestock. The results revealed that the reproductive ability has main preference among farmers due to the investment function was the main purpose in raising PO cattle.