The Use of Blog to Support Exchange of Information Technology and Marketing for Mangosteen Farmers in Singaparna District, Tasikmalaya Regency

Abstract

Mangosteen farmers, who are members of farmer groups of Artamukti in Puspahiyang, represents farmers who get help facilitate the strengthening of institutions from the Ministry of Agriculture in 2005. In fact many constraints faced by farmers in the field, especially relating to the acquisition of appropriate technology supporter of cultivation, post harvest and mangosteen marketing. In order to support of this effort, has been done the research relating to the use of blogs through the Internet at the level of that farmer groups of Artamukti. The study was conducted using descriptive analytical method by designing a blog for farmer groups of Artamukti then observed what the response obtained from the design. The experiment was conducted from June to November 2005 in the village of Puspahiyang, District of Singaparna Tasikmalaya regency. The results showed that the use of Internet technology can improve access to information and knowledge of farmers and commodity marketing opportunities for farmers mangosteen, but the constraint was the limited access time because it is still high cost of internet access at those locations and also the lack of person who hands on the information technology at that time due to background study of many farmers.