Effectiveness of Farmers Learning on Adoption of Innovation in Organic Rice Farming of East Java

Abstract

Organic rice farming system is one form of sustainable agriculture. The objective of this study was to: analyze the characteristics of organic rice farmers, analyze the level of adoption of organic rice farming innovations and analyze the effectiveness of farmers’ learning processes towards the adoption of organic rice farming innovations. The study was conducted in September 2017 until February 2018 in Bondowoso and Banyuwangi Regencies, East Java Province. The study sample was 224 people. The analysis technique used was descriptive analysis and SEM. The results of the study showed that individual characteristics of organic rice farmers include; age (middle adult), formal education (elementary), non-formal education (low), farming experience (medium), land area (narrow), cosmopolitan level (very low) and motivation level (high). Individual characteristics of farmers had a significant effect on the level of adoption of innovations in organic rice farming, particularly age, non-formal education and farming experience. The variety of learning methods of farmers was in the medium category and the learning frequency of farmers was in a very low category. The level of adoption of organic rice farming innovations was in the medium category. The learning process had effective support for the application of organic rice farming.