INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SCIENTIFIC & TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH VOLUME 9, ISSUE 03, MARCH 2020 ISSN 2277-8616 3766 IJSTR©2020 www.ijstr.org Determining Factors Of The Development Of Agricultural Extension Office As A Knot For Coordinating Agricultural Development Wida Pradiana, Oeng Anwarudin, Ait Maryani Abstract— Agricultural Extension Office has a strategic role to coordinate agricultural development at subdistrict level. This study was aimed to describe and analyze factors affecting the implementation of task, function, and work coordination, also to formulate strategy for the development of Agricultural Extension Office as “knot” to coordinate agricultural development in the subdistrict. This research was conducted in Sukabumi Regency, Province of West Java, Indonesia from May until October 2018. All agricultural extension officers in Sukabumi Regency amounted to 186 people were selected as respondents in this study. Variables analyzed in this study included Institutional Support (X1), Facility Management (X2), Human Resource Management (X3), and Quality Management (X4). Research Data were collected by questionnaire. The technique of data analysis applied in this study included analysis of descriptive statistics, path analysis, and SWOT analysis to formulate strategy for the development of Agricultural Extension Office. Result of study showed that factors of institutional support, facility management, and human resource management altogether affected quality management in the implementation of task and function. The strategies to apply in order to increase effectiveness are as follow: 1) Functioning Agricultural Extension Office (Balai Penyuluhan Pertanian) as a joint secretariat for government, self-help, and private extension workers, 2) Activating deliberation at the level of subdistrict and village, increasing innovation, number of demplot (demonstration plot), frequency of discussion, training, and participatory research at village level by optimizing the role of young extension workers and utilizing ICT for coordination effectiveness, and 3) Establishing partnership and collaboration of role and task among those involved in extension activity. Therefore, all parties may complement each other and share any excess resources, innovation, and technology besides functioning the field and Agricultural Extension Office as a dialogue room and a joint laboratory for training and research. Index Terms— agricultural extension, innovation, agricultural development. ——————————  —————————— 1 INTRODUCTION THE regulation of agricultural extension in Indonesia defines hierarchically that agricultural extension institution at subdistrict level is in the form of Agricultural Extension Office or Balai Penyuluhan Pertanian. This institute has strategic role in determining the success of agricultural development. Agricultural extension institution also reflects a successful agricultural development in the subdistrict. This institute has many roles including as the administrative center for agricultural extension workers to coordinate, synergize, and harmonize the activities of agricultural development. Agricultural Extension Office has a quite complex task. The tasks include creating and implementing extension program at subdistrict level; providing and distributing information about technology, production facilities, financing, and market; facilitating institutional development and partnership between main actors and business actors; facilitating capacity building of agricultural extension workers; facilitating the growth and development of economic institution of the main actor and business player; and implementing learning process through pilot farm and farming model development for both the main actor and business actor [1]. The are several factors that affect the implementation of the task and function of Agricultural Extension. Those are management system, leadership, and work atmosphere [2]. However, factors that determine the development of Agricultural Extension Office as a knot for coordinating agricultural development are not yet comprehensively investigated. This study was generally aimed to obtain information related to factors affecting Agricultural Extension Office in implementing its task and function as a knot for coordinating agricultural development. Specifically, this research was performed to describe and analyze factors influencing the implementation of task and function of Agricultural Extension Office; to analyze the effect of each determining factor on the work coordination in Agricultural Extension Office; to formulate the development strategy for Agricultural Extension Office as a knot for coordinating agricultural development in the subdistrict. 2 RESEARCH METHODS This study was conducted in Sukabumi Regency, Province of West Java, Indonesia from May until October 2018. The basic method applied in this study was survey method using questionnaire collected from a group of people, termed sample. This research was intended to describe, test the correlation, and test the effect between variables. Respondents selected in this study were all agricultural extension workers in Sukabumi Regency, amounted to 186 people and consisted of civil servants and daily workers. The variables formulated in this study consisted of independent variables, namely: Institutional Support (X 1 ) and Facility Management (X 2 ) and dependent variables of Human Resource Management (X 3 ) and Quality Management (X 4 ). Indicators of institutional support included institutional policy, social characteristic, work atmosphere, infrastructure availability, and program development. Indicators of facility management were office facility, working facility, planning of facility requirement, utilization, and controlling. Human Resource Management had indicators of task and ————————————————  Wida Pradiana, Department of Agriculture, Bogor Agricultural Development Polytechnic, Bogor, West Java, Indonesia.  Oeng Anwarudin, Department of Agriculture, Manokwari Agricultural Development Polytechnic, Manokwari, West Papua, Indonesia. Email: oenganwarudin@gmail.com  Ait Maryani, Department of Agriculture, Bogor Agricultural Development Polytechnic, Bogor, West Java, Indonesia.