Peranan agen pengembangan dalam mempengaruhi petani menggunakan teknologi komunikasi di Lembaga Kemajuan Pertanian Muda (MADA)

In the agricultural sector, the role of extension agent in communicating agricultural innovations can not be denied.Extension agent to liaise between agricultural agencies and farmers for centuries. However, there is still question arose among the public about the role played by extension agents due to the use and acceptance of innovation is still low, especially in terms of communication technology. Farmers need to utilize the communication technology for a variety of agricultural information for the benefited of farming .The lack of reviews in qualitative in the context of agricultural development on this issue has prompted researchers to explore this phenomenon more closely.Guided by the Theory of Diffusion Innovation and The Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT), this research will unravel the role of extension agents more closely.A total of 10 farmers registered in the Muda Agricultural Development Authority (MADA) were randomly selected for sample of the study. The data collection was conducted through focus group discussions (PKF).Through 7 steps which are need to be done by extension agnets to introduce new innovations as proposed by Rogers (2003), researchers explore the issue in depth.The result found the variables such as relative advantage, trialibility, compatibility, complexity and observability havea relevance and contribution to the use of communication technology among farmers. Meanwhile, to strengthen the acceptance of innovation, enabling variable such as effort expectancy, performance expectancy, social influence and facilitating condition also shows clearly the relevance and contribution to the acceptance of the communication technology. However, The role of extension agents should be intensified in the future primarily to get farmers involve in the current development of communication technology that is so fast and challenging in the future.This is paralel with the target of Ministry of Agriculture and Agro-based Industry to establish the population of farmers who have more knowledge and information to achieve the status of high producer agricultural countr