The Barriers of the Indonesian Extension Workers in Disseminate Agricultural Information to Farmers

117302-4747 IJBAS-IJENS © April 2011 IJENS I J E N S Abstract—Agriculture plays an important role in both poverty reduction and economic growth. The technology of agriculture in the developing world should change continuously to keep pace with rising populations and rapidly changing social, economic, and environmental conditions. The role of agricultural extension services to disseminate appropriate information to farmers in Indonesia is very important. In this country, the agricultural extension service to disseminate useful information to farmers on one hand has not been effective due to weak linkages between government and extension workers. On the other hand, not all of the existing information collections at the central agricultural libraries are accessible to all potential users. Based on this understanding of the current circumstances, this research was conducted to identify the barriers issue between the Indonesian government and the extension workers based on a literature review and a survey by questionnaires and interviews. The study revealed that a total of 47% of the respondents said that although secondary information resources were accessible, this was not the case for primary information. Concerning the issue related to information content, extension workers need a portal where they can access the primary information well and information centers should provide access for extension workers to the online catalog database. The cross-institutional interoperability of databases and repositories are crucial issues in providing agricultural information portal.