Judul: Competence and powerness of the cattle farmers to improving beef business (case on West Seram, Mollucas)
Abstrak: The research objectives are: (1) To find out and describe the factors related to the competencies and capabilities of farmers due to manage and improving beef business, (2) To find out the level of cattle farmer competencies and develop the product, and (3) To formulate or to design a strategy how to improve cattle farmer powerness in We st Seram. Structural Equation Model (SEM) was used to analyze quantitative data. From the five variable used to measure the cattle farmer competencies, it can be showed that only three of the variables significantly effect the farmer’s competencies. Those variable were human capital, physical capital and natural capital. The competencies level of the farmers on semi intensive and intensive care system were higher than extensive care system. The farmer entrepreneur competencies were higher than technical competencies. There’re significant effects of the human capital, social capital, physical capital and local government support to the powerness or capabilities of the farmers.
Keyword: marketing system, farmer empowerment, human resources, farmer entrepreneur competencies, natural resources

Judul: Pengaruh Kompetensi Terhadap Kinerja Petani Di Wilayah Agam, Sumatera Barat
Abstrak: Global market competition at present demands an improvement of the enterprise competitiveness to develop horticulture business in Indonesia. The largest producer of the commodity in Indonesia located in Agam, West Sumatra. Number of activities in developing the farmers competence were accomplished with the purpose to improve the performance and the crop yield. The objective of this research are, 1) analyzing the general description of farmers competence in region Agam, West Sumatra, 2) analyzing the perception of the farmers competence and performance in region Agam, West Sumatra, 3) analyzing the effect of competence on farmers performance in region Agam, West Sumatra, 4) providing the best recommendations regarding the competence enhancement programs that could improve the farmers performance in region Agam, West Sumatra. Based on the results of the research that quantitatively analyzed with the SEM method Partial Least Square approach, generated that the competence affects on performance. The more improved farmers competence results in the more improved farmers performance.
Keyword: SEM (Structural Equation Modeling) Partial Least Square, performance, competence

Judul: Approximation of the Median of Poisson Distribution Using the Relation of Poisson-Gamma Distribution
Abstrak: A major drawback of median is that median cannot usually be defined in closed form, even in the cases where their distribution functions are known. This study gives an approximation of the closed form for the median of the Poisson distribution by using the relation of Poisson-Gamma distribution. The approximation uses elementary techniques based on the monotonicity of certain sequences involving tail probabilities of the Poisson distribution and the Central Limit Theorem. Furthermore, a closed form expression for the mean absolute deviation 􀜧|􀜰􀰒 􀵆 􀜯􀝁􀝀􁈺􀜰􀰒􁈻| is also studied. The median is relevant because of the fact that it minimizes the mean absolute deviation of a Poisson random variable (􀜰􀰒􁈻 by considering median as central tendency.
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