Analyzing the Impact of Food Access and Social Institutions on Farmers’ Food Sufficiency through Information Technology and Environmental Moderation in West Sumatra, Indonesia
Abstract
Farmers in West Sumatra face declining household food sufficiency, creating an urgent need for an integrated examination of the factors shaping their ability to meet dietary needs. This study is motivated by the limited evidence on how food access, institutional support, technology use, and environmental conditions jointly influence household food outcomes. It is hypothesized that food access has a direct effect on food sufficiency, while institutional roles influence food sufficiency indirectly through technological mediation, and that environmental conditions strengthen these relationships. The study uses a structured survey of 400 farming households analyzed with a structural equation modeling approach to assess direct, indirect, and moderating effects. The findings show that food access is the strongest determinant of food sufficiency, social institutions operate mainly through technology, and environmental quality enhances institutional effectiveness. The study concludes that food sufficiency depends on the combined strength of economic access, institutional capacity, technological use, and environmental resilience.