The role of university community programs in disseminating agriculture innovation: a case study in Sekincau Region, West Lampung, Indonesia

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture, Lampung University, Indonesia

^* Corresponding author: katarina.manik@gmail.com

Abstract

Universities have three complementary missions, namely research, teaching, and community services. The Lampung University community services has responsibilities to the surround communities with being active roles in educating people, doing the strategic plans of the university, implementing and disseminating various university research results. Sekincau is a region in West Lampung with a great potential for horticulture productions, however, until recently, Lampung depends on West Java for supplying of horticulture productions. Some community programs had been done consistently in this area by Agronomy faculties of Lampung University with the local agriculture extension and farmers groups. The activities included introducing and developing good quality seeds of potato and baby beans seeds until certified for progeny of basic seed, intercropping of sorghum and baby beans, introducing internet applications useful for farmers and built a start-up particularly for young farmers. The method was “training and visit” which for regions where the level of development is still very low, instructing farmers what to do was probably more appropriate. This paper evaluated university roles in disseminating innovation to farmers. In general, it can be concluded that community development and services would only effective if continually conducted by the same group and focused on certain chosen area.