KOMUNIKASI PEKEBUN DALAM PEMASARAN TANDAN BUAH SEGAR (TBS) KELAPA SAWIT PERKEBUNAN RAKYAT DI LAHAN BASAH PROVINSI KALIMANTAN SELATAN

Abstract

The research purposes are to identify the communication network among palm oil farmers in Fresh Fruit Bunch (FFB) marketing, to explore the roles of farmer in the marketing, and to excavate the problems encountered. The research was carried out in Barito Kuala Regency, where 60 palm oil farmers were randomly selected as respondents, while the informants were tracked down and selected by snowball sampling. The result shows that the identified communication networks are among farmers, farmers to collector traders, farmers to cooperatives, farmers to CPO manufactories, farmers to policy makers, and farmers to global agricultural market. The farmers have roles both as communicator and communicant to their fellow farmer, to collector trader, cooperative, manufactories, policy makers, and global market. The main problems encountered are the existence of oligopsony market and the high price volatility.