The Effectiveness of Farmer Field School in Dissemination of Innovation:
The Case of Orchids Farmers in Tangerang Banten
and the Onion Farmers in Brebes Central Java
One of the problems of dissemination of innovation is knowledge and adoption gaps among audiences. Farmers have never acquired knowledge as a whole. Likewise, the implementation of an innovation is often incomplete. Dissemination of innovation through Farmer Field Schools (FFS) – which is a blend of dialogue, learning through experience and practice – hypothetically be able to reduce the knowledge and innovation gap. This study aims to determine the effectiveness of FFS in dissemination of knowledge and adoption of innovations to farmers participating in FFS cultivation of orchids in Tangerang district and farmers participating in FFS of onion integrated pest management in District Berebes. The X2 test shows that age, education and farming experience have not had a significant effect on the knowledge and of innovation, which means that knowledge and adoption of innovation in the two groups of farmers are relatively equal. But in general, the FFS has not succeeded in driving innovation perfectly, because 39% of onion farmers are still unsure and 43% are very skeptical to obtain a good production results. Therefore, FFS should not only teach an innovation but rather to convince farmers about the obtained production results, as well as raises awareness about the importance of innovation as a problem solution faced by farmers.
Key words: FFS, Knowledge gap, Adoption of Innovation gap and innovation awareness
For the complete text, please visit:
