This study of cultural change looks at the cultural change aspect of coffee farmers in the Gayo Highlands that is famous in the world as the producer of Arabica coffee. The change of plantation culture is seen from the number of transitional types that are cultivated by the local community and the transitional period of government in Indonesia. The changes in plantation management, from the management model traditionally such as the period before the Dutch colonial administration (garden system), the colonial period (plantation company system); the post-independence period of Republic of Indonesia (state plantation companies system, private plantation company, and people’s plantation), and the late 1990s (the people’s plantation system). The factors that encourage the change in Gayo coffee plantations are divided into two forms, namely directly and indirectly. Directly it is caused by the inclusion of LTA 77 companies to Gayo Highlands in 1983. While indirectly it is caused by cessation of operational PTP I Langsa Kebun Takengon in 1980, the occurrence of frost in 1993, the tsunami disaster in Aceh in 2004, and there is technological innovation.
Keywords: Coffee Plantation; Cultural Change, Gayo Highland
