Knowledge Enhancement of Field School Participants and Perception on Shallot Multiple Production Program (Proliga) in Sigi District

Abstract

Shallot’s fluctuations in production are able to influence the inflation rates where a deficit on shallot supply makes the price of shallot in the high level. One program to increase shallot ’s production is through Multiple Production Programs or Proliga which mainly use True Seed of Shallot. To spread these technologies, a dissemination method is needed, one is through the field school (FS) for extension workers and potential shallot farmers. An evaluation needs to be carried out to assess the effectiveness of the dissemination. The study aims to determine the increase in participant’s knowledge after attending the field school of shallot and their perception to the technologies. Data collection used a questionnaire taken twice, namely the initial test (pre-test) and the final test (post-test) after the field school activities. Data were analyzed using non-parametric Wilcoxon Match Pairs Test statistics. Farmer perceptions were analyzed using scoring method. The results of the analysis showed that the proliga field school activities significantly increased participants' knowledge with significance at 5% confidence level and the percentage of participants who increased their knowledge as much as 95.65%. Generally, farmers were interesting on the technology in Proliga but need a technology improvement on TSS to get easier application.