Yeni Yuliati 1, Alia Bihrajihant Raya 2,*, Partini 3
1 Extension and Development Communication, Graduate School, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Yogyakarta 55284, Indonesia
2 Study Program, Extension and Development Communication, Graduate School, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Yogyakarta 55284, Indonesia
3 Department of Sociology, Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Yogyakarta 55281, Indonesia
* Correspondence: alia.bihrajihant.r@ugm.ac.id
Received: 13 May 2026 Revised: 6 August 2026 Accepted: 7 August 2026 Published: 17 August 2026
ABSTRACT
The digital divide in agriculture is a pressing problem that must be resolved to achieve national food security through the strengthening of technological transformation at the regional level. This study examines how millennial farmers in the UPTD BP4 Region III working area, Sleman Regency, Indonesia, construct the meaning of agricultural technology in relation to food security. Guided by a human-centered, socio-technical framing of technology adoption, the study asks why and how technology enters farmers’ everyday practice and how this relates to the availability, access, and quality dimensions of food security. Using a qualitative critical-constructivist design, data were collected from 12 informants through in-depth interviews, two focus group discussions, field observation, and document review conducted between January and March 2025. Data were coded and analyzed in NVivo 14 using an iterative reduction-display-verification cycle continued until no new codes emerged across successive interviews, and validity was strengthened through technique and source triangulation. Findings show that millennial farmers meaning-making is concentrated in downstream, market-facing uses of digital technology, primarily marketing and distribution, while upstream (on-farm, production-side) applications remain dominated by mechanical rather than digital or IoT-based tools. This pattern demonstrates a clearer, evidenced contribution to the access dimension of food security than to availability or quality. A pronounced digital divide compounds this pattern across three layers: access, digital literacy, and utilization, and disproportionately disadvantages farmers engaged in food-crop cultivation relative to those in horticulture and downstream marketing. Technological transformation in this setting, therefore requires holistic policy intervention, pairing infrastructure investment with critical digital-literacy training and extension support, to build a digitally capable and inclusive millennial farmer ecosystem that balances food provision with profitability.
Keywords: agricultural technology; digital divide; food security; human-centered technology design; millennial farmers
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.