Socialization on Agricultural Work from Farmer Parents to their Children: A Case Study

The declining number of farmers as agricultural human resources is one of the issues and challenges of Indonesia agricultural sector. There is a declining trend of interest of young generation in working at agricultural sector. The interests and participation of youth in agricultural is encouraged by social and family factors. Their attitude is actually formed through socialization that comes from internal (parents, peers and teachers). This article is limited to identifying the socialization by parents on agricultural work. The research analysis unit is young-adult individuals which are farmer’s children at one Vocational Colleges in Indonesia. The sample was done purposively. The selected respondents were 69 people. A descriptive statistical analysis was used with Microsoft Excel 2010. For better understanding, in-depth interviews were conducted on 3 cases using communication ethnography. Research result showed that most (75%) of the respondents' parents talked about agriculture. The duration of conversation was around 10-60 minutes/month on the topics of cultivation, marketing, farmer status and others. The responders were also involved in helping parents in agricultural activities although their involvement was low (44%), moderate (31%) and high (9%). There was even 16% of youth who had never helped their parents in their farm.