EFFORT TO INCREASE CATTLE FARMERS CAPACITY IN APPLICATION OF COMPACT ORGANIC FERTILIZER TECHNOLOGY (CASE STUDY ON FARMER GROUP LEMBAH PAMULI NORTH MINAHASA REGENCY)

The aim of the study was to know cattle farmers ability and their characteristics to implement technology of compact organic fertilizer made from cattle manure. The program was conducted in farmers group namely Lembah Pamuli located in Wori sub district regency of North Minahasa. The objects of activity consisted of 15 of cattle farmers whereas the materials included cattle’s manure, ureum, probiotic EM4 and other materials that can supported the processing of organic fertilizer production. The approach to the group was extension and training. The result of this program showed that 66.67% of the participant in extension and training was men and they were 43 years old in averages. Thirty percent of their level of education was elementary school, 40% in secondary school, 22% senior high school and 8% at level of diploma. According to pre and posttest toward members group of Lembah Pamuli in line with their capacity to produce organic fertilizer showed that averages score increase by 47.94% after they followed the extension and training to produce organic fertilizer. The breeder’ knowledge was significantly different (P<0.01) before and after learning of how to produce organic fertilizer from cattle manure.


Introduction
Cattle ranchers are one of the rural development agents who, if empowered, will be able to provide increased productivity in their business that will have an impact on improving the welfare of the farmer's family. The ability of farmers and ranchers in Indonesia in managing their farming system is generally still low due to their knowledge is still limited to what is usually Http://www.granthaalayah.com ©International Journal of Research -GRANTHAALAYAH [186] done by their families for generations (Hanifa, et al 2013). Therefore, one way that can be done to improve the knowledge and skills of farmers in managing their farming is through counseling and training (Syafaat et al., 1995;Hasibuan, et al, 2013;Baba, 2012

Materials and Methods
The solution offered to overcome the problems of cattle breeders is the method of implementation of science and technology which consists of instructional methods through the extension activities (FGD) and training activities through technology demonstration followed by the practice of making solid organic fertilizer from cow feces. Counseling about the benefits of solid organic fertilizer from cow dung was done to 15 members of Pamuli Farmer Group Wori Village Wori Subdistrict of North Minahasa Regency with the aim of changing the behavior of group member resources in a better direction (Pambudy, 1999). Some extension philosophy is: (1) counseling relying on the program on the needs of farmers; (2) counseling is essentially a non-formal education process for adults. The goal is to teach farmers, improve their lives by their own efforts, and teach farmers to use their natural resources wisely; And (3) extension workers working with other organizations to develop individuals, groups and nations. The data collected includes the characteristics of Pamuli Lembah Farmer Group members such as age, sex and education level. To know the increase of knowledge and ability of farmers to make solid organic fertilizer from cow feces then do knowledge evaluation before and after gain knowledge from counseling and training. Assessment is done through scoring on 20 items questions about the benefits of organic fertilizer from cow dung where each question is worth 1 to 3. Further data obtained correlation test to determine the relationship of variables before and after cattle ranchers get counseling and knowledge differences from cattle ranchers before and after obtaining counseling by using product moment correlation analysis and paired simple t test (two paired sample t test). Data analysis was performed using SPSS application.

Results and Discussion
The success of beef cattle business is determined by 3 interrelated elements namely seed, feed and management. Management element plays an important role in the success of cattle business as in the production process and livestock waste (Lantapa, et al, 2015). The success of the business depends on the characteristics of cattle group members. Characteristics of group members are seen from their age and level of education. Members of the group trained for the application of organic fertilizer technology based on cow feces stools amounted to 15 people.

Characteristics of Farmers
Farmers members of the farmer group Lembah Pamuli Village Wori Kabupoaten North Minahasa as a target of community service activities in this number of 15 people who are entirely livelihood as a farmer also as a cattle rancher. The number of cattle raised every farmer ranges from 1-3 tail because it is still a side business and as a family savings. The types of cows that are kept are ongole peranakan (PO) The extension activities were conducted by discussion technique to transfer the science team from the team to the target group to solve the problem that was faced related to the business of cow management and the processing of cow waste in the form of cow feces. The characteristics of extension participants are presented in table 1, table 2 and table 3. Table 1 shows that the majority of counselors are male as many as 10 people or 66.67% of all participants. This indicates that the activity in the group activities is dominated by men as the head of the family. This condition is an implication of the family decision-making system dominated by the head of the family including the decision to engage in group activities outside the family.   Table 2 shows that 44% of the aged cattle ranchers are in the range of 40-50 years. Age in the range is included in the productive age category (15-65 years). In the productive age, one will be able to carry out activities including counseling and training of organic solid fertilizer processing from cow feces which is expected to influence the adoption of organic fertilizer technology by cattle farmers of Pamuli Lembah Farmer Group. Increasing the age of the farmers is related to their experience in farming. The more farmers experience the better the management capability of livestock farms. Table 3 shows that cow breeders' education and counseling education is dominated by secondary education and secondary education with 62% or 9 students. Meanwhile there are 30% of primary school-educated and 8% farmers with diploma education. According to Chamdi (2003) said that the level of education will increase knowledge and skills so that will affect the productivity of business and the success of the farm. The level of knowledge of cattle farmers is evaluated prior to counseling and training to find out how far their knowledge level of extension materials and training will be provided. Pre test is done by using 20 items about the technology of making solid organic fertilizer made from cow feces. Pre-test results show that the level of knowledge of oeternak is still quite low with the average score of 35.71 as shown in table 4. After pre-tested the team of devotion to do counseling with processing material of cow feces into solid organic fertilizer using the help of LCD media. Furthermore, by using statistical analysis Paired sample t test to determine whether there is difference of knowledge of cattle farmers before and after given counseling obtained results as in Table 5. The results of the analysis in Table 5 indicate that the knowledge level of beef cattle farmers after being supplied with the material about the processing of cow feces into different solid organic fertilizer is very real with their knowledge before giving the extension material (P <0,01). These results indicate that extension and training activities are very effective to improve the capability of beef cattle farmers who are members of Lembah Pamuli Farmer Group to process cow faeces into solid organic fertilizer. The research results are in line with Widnyana (2011) stating that the extension and advisory efforts of farmer groups are able to increase knowledge, skills and income from organic farming. The result of cow breeder knowledge analysis before and after got knowledge about the processing of cow feces into solid organic fertilizer showed a positive relationship which means counseling and training able to give improvement of cow breeder capability through the increase of knowledge and skill to produce solid organic fertilizer from cow feces, however statistically the relationship is not significant (P> 0.05).

Conclusion
Extension activities and training on cow dung faecal processing technology into solid organic fertilizer to members of farmer group of beef cattle Lembah Pamuli Wori Village North Minahasa regency able to improve knowledge and skill of farmers equal to 47,94%