Agriculture is one of the main sectors that support people's lives, because the agricultural sector is the livelihood of most of the Indonesian population. Departing from this, then agriculture is one of the pillars of the national economy.
This means that the agricultural sector plays an important role and should be the driving force of economic activity. In Indonesia, the agricultural sector is divided into five, namely the food crops sub-sector, the second plantation sub-sector, the third horticulture sub-sector, the fourth livestock sub-sector, and the fifth is the fishery sub-sector. terms of agricultural activities.
Agricultural extension is a non-formal education for farmers which includes activities in expert knowledge and skills from extension workers to farmers and their families which takes place through the teaching and learning process.
Agricultural extension workers must be competent agricultural experts, besides being able to guide farmers, extension workers also provide motivation. provide information and increase farmer awareness so that it can encourage their interest in learning in dealing with problems in the field.
Agricultural extension is a non-formal education for farmers and their families which includes activities in expert knowledge and skills from field extension workers to farmers and their families through the teaching and learning process.
Agricultural instructors must be competent agricultural experts, in addition to being able to communicate effectively with farmers so that they can encourage their interest in learning and must be oriented to the problems faced by farmers, the involvement of someone to communicate information consciously with the aim of helping the target give opinions so that they can make decisions correct.
This activity was carried out by someone called agricultural extensionist, who stated that agricultural extension workers are agents for changing farmer behavior, namely encouraging farmers to change their behavior to become farmers with better abilities and able to make their own decisions, which in turn will get a better life.
From the description above, the purpose of extension is to change the behavior of farmers by increasing the knowledge, attitudes, skills and motivation of the target farmers so that farmers are able to make decisions in running and developing their farming business independently.
Through the role of extension workers, farmers are expected to be aware of their needs, improve their abilities, and be able to play a better role in society. Based on this role, agricultural extension workers are the spearhead of successful agricultural development.
As the spearhead, of course, extension workers must be able to play their role well so that they can encourage the process of agricultural development. One of the effective steps that can be taken in order to accelerate the pace of the agricultural development process is to develop farmer groups.
Farmer groups are very important in the process of delivering information and new technologies to farmers. Group extension methods are more profitable than mass media because there will be feedback that can minimize misunderstandings between extension workers and farmers in conveying information.
In this method, the interaction between farmers and extension workers will be more intensive. In this method, farmers are invited and guided in groups to carry out more productive activities on the basis of cooperation.
Farmers are the main actors and are members of farmer groups in agricultural production activities as well as part of the Indonesian people who need to improve their welfare and intelligence, one of the efforts to increase intelligence is carried out through extension activities.
With the extension, it is hoped that all agricultural information that develops can be absorbed and accepted by farmers, the more information that is used by farmers, the more effective the extension will be.