Abstract
With economically unsustainable metroxylon sagu (sago palms) found in peat lands, small scale farmers are gradually converting their land to oil palm cultivation. Good agriculture practices (GAP) were inculcated to peat land farmers to ensure that the environmental ecosystem is conserved and oil palm productivity is enhanced, along with the farmer’s well-being. The present study examined the effect of GAP on farm performance and the perceived economic well-being of the peat land oil palm farmers. We interviewed randomly selected farmers with assistance from a locally trained native enumerator to complete the survey questionnaire. We conducted partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) to incorporate direct and indirect benefits on farmers’ economic well-being to estimate the significance of GAP. The empirical results show that GAP have direct positive effects on farm performance. Such practices lead to significant positive impacts on the economic well-being of peat land oil palm farmers. This solid evidence makes it much easier for small-scale farmers to convert from conventional farming to environmentally friendly farming, and ensures safe and healthy oil palm cultivation.
Highlights
14.0% of the peat land oil palm farmers were less than 39 years old, more than half (55.5%) were 40–59 years old, and the rest (30.6%) were more than 61 years old
15.2% of farmers earn less than a MYR 500 of monthly cash income generated from oil palm cultivation
We analyzed the Good Agriculture Practice (GAP) among farmers of peat land oil palm, and it effects on farm performance and economic well-being
Summary
Peat lands cover an estimated area of 400 million hectares of the Earth’s land surface, whereas tropical peat lands cover only 30–40 million hectares [1]. The major typical problems with peat soil, especially deep peat, lie in its physical and chemical properties. Peat land ecosystems have various functions, especially for storm water retention, flood protection, water quality enhancement, freshwater fishery, food chain support, feeding grounds for marine fish, biodiversity, carbon storage, and climate mitigation [4,5,6]. Loss of biodiversity [7,8] and the contribution to global climate change through carbon emissions are the main concerns about peat land conversion [9,10,11,12,13]
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