Judul: Persepsi Anggota Kelompok Tani Padi terhadap Kepemimpinan Ketua Kelompok Tani di Kabupaten Kebumen, Jawa Tengah
Abstrak: In general, the behaviour of farmer group leaders strongly influences the changes in his group behaviour. If the leader is effectively influencing his members, they will behave as desired. Therefore, the leadership of farmer groups becomes a strategic issue on agricultural extension methodology through group approach. The farmer group leader could act for some leadership functions and figures to motivate and mobilize members to perform various activities to achieve the group goals. Perceptions related to the individual's opinions and judgments of a stimulus that will lead to motivation, willingness and feelings toward the stimulus. The correct perception of an object is necessary, because the perception is the basis of the formation of attitudes and behaviour. Thus, a good perception of the group members on the leadership of their group leaders is one of the main indicators of the success of a leader in bringing about the success of his farmer groups. This research aims to: (1) analyse the perception of group members on the leadership of farmer group leaders, (2) analyse the correlation between internal factors in the group members and their perceptions on the leadership of their group leader, (3) analyse the correlation between external factors in the group members and their perceptions on the leadership of their group leader, (4) analyse the success of farmer groups, and (5) analyse the correlation between perceptions of group members on the leadership of their group leader and the success of farmer groups. The design of this research is using methodology of survey to explain the correlation among the variables of this research. The population in this research are all farmers who are members of paddy farmer groups in Kebumen, Central Java Province. The respondent recruited by using stratified random sampling method based on class (typology) of abilities of farmer groups set by the Ministry of Agriculture, namely: Beginners, Intermediates 1, Intermediate 2, and Advanced (Pemula, Lanjut, Madya and Utama). The number of farmer groups (respondents) observed were 12 groups with details of three farmer groups in each typology of farmer groups, then 10 members from each group selected, so the total number of respondents was 120 farmers. The research was conducted from August to November 2012. The data analysis includes: (1) descriptive analysis: the frequency distribution and different test of non-parametric Kruskal-Wallis, and (2) inferential analysis: Rank Spearman correlation. Analysis helped by SPSS software version 20.0. The result of this research shows that the perception of members on the leadership of the farmer groups’ leader is high; the group leader has performed his function as a group leader well. The higher the grade of ability of the farmer groups, the perception of members on the leadership of their group leaders tends to become better. Internal factors of the group members that consist of age, formal education, land owned, motivation, and a cosmopolitan issue of the area have real positive correlation to the perception of members on the leadership of the farmer groups’ leaders. The external factors of the group members that consist of the availability of information, the role of agriculture extension worker,
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