Journal of Social Sciences 6 (3): 356-360, 2010 ISSN 1549-3652 © 2010 Science Publications Corresponding Author: Md. Salleh Hassan, Laboratory of Rural Advancement and Agriculture Extension, Institute for Social Science Studies, University Putra Malaysia, Malaysia 356 Producing Television Agriculture Program: Issues and Problems among Malaysian Television Producers Md. Salleh Hassan, Hayrol Azril Mohamed Shaffril, Bahaman Abu Samah, Mohamad Sham Shahkat Ali and Nor Sabila Ramli Laboratory of Rural Advancement and Agriculture Extension, Institute for Social Science Studies, University Putra Malaysia, Malaysia Abstract: Problem statement: One of the developing sectors in Malaysia is agriculture. Agriculture doubtlessly has assisted this country in terms of enhancing the economic level, offering a huge number of employment opportunities and uplifting the socio-economy status of the community. To ensure the sustainability of this sector to the country, we must ensure that the valuable agriculture information is continuously provided to the public and the information must be disseminated through the most effective channel. Here, television can be the mean channel. Approach: This study aimed to investigate the issues raised and problems faced by the Malaysian agriculture television program producers in producing the television agriculture programs. Data was collected using an in-depth interview among three agriculture television producers in Malaysia. The questions served as a guide, but allowed respondents freedom and flexibility in their answers. The findings were in the form of descriptive analysis. Results: Based on the analysis done, it can be concluded that the cooperation between Radio Television Malaysia and Department of Agriculture Malaysia is important to ensure the success and continuity of the agriculture programs. It was found that the agriculture programs were evaluated internally by the Radio Television Malaysia auditor and externally by AGB Nielsen. The producers also received feedback from their local and foreign audience in the form of e-mail and telephone. Human resource, transportation and financial are the main problems that need to be overcome by the producers. Conclusion/Recommendations: It is suggested that other media organizations and giant agriculture companies can join RTM in producing agriculture programs. This can aid RTM in producing more innovative agriculture programs and can attract the youth to watch the program. Key words: Television producers, agriculture information, Radio Television Malaysia INTRODUCTION Agriculture is a developing sector in Malaysia. It is expected that during the Ninth Malaysia Plan, this sector will become one of the main income generators in Malaysia. During the Eight Malaysia Plan (RMK-8), the agriculture added-value grew at an average of 3.0% per annum during the plan period, higher than the previous target which is 2.0% per annum. The main cause of this is due to a significant performance recorded by the agriculture industrial commodities subsector such as oil palm and rubber. The growth value proves that agriculture in Malaysia has the potential in strengthening the economy of the country and doubtlessly it has the ability in enhancing farmers level of socio-economy. To further enhance this industry’s potential and ability, it is important to ensure that the benefited party which is the farmers are provided with all the current and updated agriculture information such as new technologies, new products, methods of marketing, new fertilizers and many more. To provide them with the current and updated information, the related agriculture agencies must use suitable channel to ensure that the message will be accepted and comprehended by the target groups. Television can be the best channel for agriculture information dissemination. Previous studies have already proved that television is the main information sources for the farmers (Khan et al., 2010; Irfan et al., 2006; Md. Sallah and Hayrol Azril, 2009). The dissemination power that television has cannot be denied. The television message can be disseminated in a very short time reaching a big number of audience. Supposedly, television can be used wisely to