Smallholders perception on the roles of extension agent - coconut industry
sustainability in Tanjong Karang, Selangor, Malaysia
This study was conducted to analyse the smallholder’s perception of the roles of extension agents - coconut industry sustainability. To ensure the extension agent program is successful, the agent should recognize their roles as the change agent in the coconut industry which is, they act as a catalyst, process helpers, resource linkers, and solution giver. This study was conducted in sub-districts of Kuala Selangor at Tanjong Karang. The sample of fifty-six respondents was selected from the 65 population through the random sampling method. By using a survey method, the questionnaires were distributed to measure the roles of the extension agent as a change agent based on the smallholder’s perception. Based on correlation coefficient analysis, it was shown that all data was significant between catalyst, process helper, resource linker, and solution giver by using 0.10 (p-value). The highest correlation coefficient in this analysis is solution giver that shows the correlation value 0.660 and can best be described as a positive strong relationship. The result for multiple linear regression showed that process helper was the dominant factor for this study which showed the beta, p-value is 0.264 by using 0.10 (pvalue). Hence, it can be analysed that the level of the extension agent roles in the coconut industry is at a medium level because they are not fully utilizing their roles as a change agent. As for the recommendation, extension agents in the coconut industry should be more aggressive by looking at the various aspects such as communication, decision making, knowledge, skills, and others to make the coconut industry sustainable for the future.