Abstract
This paper employed survey data to identify farmers’ acceptance and practices on new paddy seed variety in MADA granary area in Kedah Malaysia. 250 of respondents who are paddy farmers in four districts area (Perlis, Jitra, Pendang and Kota Sarang Semut) were involved in this interview. The objective of the study was to obtain farmers’ acceptance and practices on new paddy seed variety. The results show that socio- demographic of respondents in MADA area represents 93.2% of respondents are male and the rest of 6.8% are female farmers. The most predominant age group of the respondents between 51 to 60 years old which are 37.6%. For the marital status of the respondents, there were 64.4% are married, 15.6% are single and 20% are widow and widower. 29.6% respondents went to primary schools while about 50.8% went to secondary schools. Meanwhile, 12.4% had college/university education and only 7.2% did not get any formal education. The overall mean for perception level toward advantage and disadvantage rice variety selected is 3.902 considered as a high level of perception. Meanwhile, for chi-square analysis, it illustrates a significant different on age and years of involvement towards a level of practices on using new paddy seed variety. DOI: 10.5901/ajis.2016.v5n2p105
Highlights
Paddy is an important source of food and farm income for small holders in Malaysia
Malaysian Agriculture Research and Development Institute (MARDI), Department of Agriculture (DOA) and Muda Agricultural Development Authority (MADA) are research institute and a government agency that involve in developing many programs to increase paddy production
MR219 is the most popular variety grown in Malaysia had been declared in 2001 and was almost 12 years ago.MR219 have been the most common varieties planted by farmers in Malaysia in more than 90% granary areas (Suswanto et al.,2007; Raudah et al, 2014)
Summary
Paddy is an important source of food and farm income for small holders in Malaysia. The area of paddy planted in Malaysia is about 672,000 ha and 3.6 metric tons per hectares for the average of national paddy production (DOA, 2014). The government seriously emphasizes and gives a massive attention via research institute and government agency towards Malaysian paddy and rice industry. Malaysian Agriculture Research and Development Institute (MARDI), Department of Agriculture (DOA) and Muda Agricultural Development Authority (MADA) are research institute and a government agency that involve in developing many programs to increase paddy production MR220CL2, MR253, MR263 and MR269 are several new varieties launched by MARDI as an alternative to increase production and food security requirement
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