Social Network Analysis: Local and Global Centrality as the Network Structure in the Beef Cattle Farmer Groups

Abstract

The dynamism among farmer institutions has essential problems to be addressed, especially regarding the pattern and process of communication interactions developing farmer institutions. Therefore, an assembly of agribusiness information within the communication network of the farmer group is of primary interest for our study. The research objective was to analyze the network structure of the agribusiness farmer group of beef cattle breeders in Subang district, West Java, Indonesia. This study uses the SNA approach for discovering communication network structure. Data were collected through interviews using a questionnaire. Moreover, this current research used census sampling techniques. Communication network structure were analyzed using UCINET 6 software. The results of the study show: 1) The local centrality and netdraw illustrate the head of farmer groups still plays a role as a source of information for their members even if members can access 2-3 other sources, 2) The global centrality average remains high and is close to the maximum. The limitation of this study is that only in quantitative approach. Therefore, it is recommended to conduct further research in a qualitative approach to further analyze the roles play in the networks that can be considered in increasing group social capital.