Disseminating Technical Culture on Wanatani Kopi (Coffee Agroforestry) through Pictorial Story Book Ida Nurhaida1, Sugeng P. Hariyanto3, Samsul Bakri4, Akmal Junaidi5, dan Pairul Syah6 2) Department of Communication, Faculty of Social and Politicial Scien ces, 3) Department of Forestry Management, Faculty of Agriculture, 4) Department of Soil Science, Faculty of Agriculture, 5) Department of Computer Science, Faculty of Mathematics, and Natural Sciences, 6) Department of Sociology, Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, Lampung University ABSTRACT An endeavor on implanting the environmental ideologies was an urgent program for communities on recharged areas, such as West Lampung. For those proposes, four villages of West Lampung (Southern tips of Sumatera, Indonesia) were employed as the representation of the four tribes dominantly occupying in the area. The villages were Way Mengaku (Lampungese), Sukananti (Semendonese), Sidomakmur (Javanese) and, Gunung Terang (Sundanese). The main material employed in the research was entertainment medium of pictorial story book, titled Melestarikan Wilayah Resapan dengan Menerapkan Wanatani Kopi. In June 2006 the medium was disseminated. There were five channels applied (S 1 to S5) in each village to diffuse the messages of the environmental ideologies contended in the medium. The medium was distributed as the following, S1 were given to farmers, S 2 to the formal leaders, S 3 to the informal leaders, S 4 to the schools and mosques, and S 5 randomly to the community of each village. The development of farmer’s comprehension to the messages being conveyed were measured by using 2 statistic test for α =5%, at each quarter, and each semester. Duncan Multiple Range Test for α =5% was used to compare the differences of the five of channels. It was concluded that, firstly in relation to the environmental ideologies comprehension, (a) quarterly, there were no significant differences for the Lampungese for 2 times series; significantly different for the first term and not significantly for the second term for Semendonese; and significantly different for two terms, both for the Javanese and the Sundanese, (b) tested in every semester, the development of their comprehension were significantly different in the four tribes. Secondly, the most effective way in conveying the diffusion was S 5. The S1, S3, S2, and S4 were not significantly different from each other. Based on the research there were 3 recommendations proposed: (a) It is needed to conduct a research to detect the sustainability of the development of the comprehension upon the environmental ideology in relation to the adoption and gender role, (b) It is also recommend to conduct similar research on rubber or cocoa agro forestry, (c) It is strongly recommended that Board of Watershed Management (BP DAS) of the Directorate General of Land Rehabilitation and Social Forestry will adapt and apply the medium for extension program on the 22 Indonesian critical watershed. Key words: environmental ideology, recharge area, agro-forestry, pictorial story book, information. Land erosion which causes environmental destruction and the limited number of information trainers have become big issues in the effort of saving the dry land. The drought, the increase of the sediment load from the erosion in the rivers and lakes, and the silting up of dams are interconnected in decreasing the hydrology function of recharge areas (Nurhaida et.al, 2001). On the other hand, agricultural system in Indonesia depends a lot on the use of dry la nd. The 1 Correspondence: I. Nurhaida. Department of Communication, Faculty of Social and Politicial Sciences, Lampung University. Jl. Sumanteri Brojonegoro No.1 Bandar Lampung 35145. E -mail: [email protected]; [email protected] Nurhaida: Disseminating Technical Culture on Wanatani Kopi (Coffee Agroforestry) through Pictorial Story Book problem becomes more complex when it comes to the linguistics barrier that happens to most farmers in Indonesia. Many of them are still illiterate and do not have access to information. This is ironic since farmers are the dominant society in the economic structure of Indonesian people. For the last two decades the experts in the development’s communication have used popular graphic design as entertainment medium which carries messages of development like fotonovela (Parlato & Cain, 1980), comics (Parlato & Cain, 1980; Satmoko, 1995; Retowati, 1995), and storybooks (Nurhaida et.al., 2001).This was done to solve the above mentioned problems. Further, this effort was also meant to give solution to the limited number of information staff, which is also a phenomenon that happens in most villages of third world countries. In addition to that, Nurhaida (1995) has tried to break the linguistic barrier by using regional Sundanese dialect in 2 villages in West Java. This was effective in disseminating messag es on conservational agriculture. Those graphic media were chosen to disseminate information to villages because they have some advantages in the flexibelity of carrying the develpoment messages. Besides that, those media could be easily used in visualizing literal messages knowing that the duration is longer (compared to other media like radios and televisions). Another advantage from those media is that people can reuse the media many times they like (so the innovation can be spread faster). The inexpensive cost in producing the media is another benefit. However, a special study in using the right strategy of message ordering is needed. This is important to achieve the effectiveness of message delivery, especially if the graphic media are meant not only for entertainment but also as a medium for learning (Parlato, Parlato & Cain, 1980). According to Schram (1988), messages are any kinds of information signs which are exchanged in the process of communication, that include the literal, the pictured ones an d other types of signs, to achieve an equal meaning. In the process of communication, a message will be effective in persuading the people if the message has included some factors like, attraction, self involvement, acceptability and comprehension from the target society. If not, message dissemination in the process of persuassive communication will not be too effective and could even fail to reach the society. This is due to the absence of the above mentioned factors in processing the issue or main pro blem which will be given through the process of communication. A message should also be built exactly like its actual reality which is faced by the society, whether physical reality or social - cultural one. Based on the social-cultural reality, West Lampung area is dominated by 4 big ethnic groups: Sundanese, Javanese, Lampungese and Semendonese with agriculture, especially on traditional coffee farms, as their main income source ( data from BPS, 2004). Based on the physical reality or physical background, in general, according to the document on Land Recource Evaluation and Planning Project I (LREPP I) (Pusat Penelitian Tanah dan Agroklimat, 1989), West Lampung area has many hills and mountains in its landscape, with the average elevation of 200-2000 m from the sea surface. Rain evaporation in West Lampung was of 2833 -3058 mm per year which is dominated by erosion sensitive land. Most of the land in West Lampung are recharge areas of some main watersheds in the Lampung province like watersheds in Way Sekampung, Way Seputih, Way Tulang Bawang, Way Rarem, Way Besai, dan Way Umpu. According to the data from the Department of Forestry in 2000, forests and recharge areas take almost 30% of all the West Lampung and they are owned by the government. However, according to Afandi er.al. (2000a), almost all of them were used for planting coffee. It means that the people have also reached the forests and planted them with coffee. Contrary to that, the central part of Lampung province was previously planned to be built with some high-cost investation facilities like irrigation (dams, irrigation line) and dams that support electricity production like Way Rarem dam (which was built since the Dutch colonialism) and Batutegi dam (which was built since the government of Repub lic of Indonesia was first established). IJSS Vol. 21 (1) Since 1984, the government has decided to put Way Sekampung, Way Seputih and Way Rarem in the 24 watersheds that are in critical condition. The decision was based on the letters of consensus made by 3 ministers: (a) Minister of Self-Affairs who supervises the Department of Land with the letter’s number: 19/Kpts/1984, (b) Minister of Forestry with the letter’s number: 059/Kpts-II/1984, and (c) Minister of General Affairs who manages and maintains some important facilities like irrigation and electricity with the letter’s number: 124/Kpts/1984. According to Arsyad (2000), the watersheds were placed into critical condition based on several reasons: (1) Those watersheds have shown some hidrology characteristics of en dangered watersheds like the river’s fluctuated debris, the blocked flow of water during dry season that causes the dirty flood from the erosion’s sediment during the rainy season, (2) within the areas, high-cost facilities like dams and irrigation or elec tricity lines were being built, and (3) Nomadic farmers often live around those areas, and also because of bad agricultural system that often ignores the soil and water conservation. Related to point number (3), Afandi et.al (2002b) reported that agricultu ral system of monoculture, which is mostly coffee, has dominated the land use in the riverbanks of the watersheds. In fact, almost all protected forests have even been replaced with a planting system of monoculture as well, which is of coffee plant. Moreov er, the management of the farm was only orienting on the crops and not to the reproduction of plants. This is fatal and can cause a serious environmental destruction since the incorrect agricultural system can increase the number of erosions that will only leave the solid grounds with a very low water absorption, and the river’s high fluctuated debris.