Integrated Agriculture Development Research Articles

Adoption of Smart Farming Technology Among Rice Farmers

Application of smart farming technology in rice farming activity is relevant in facing the challenges in achieving food security and improving the wellbeing of farmers. In Malaysia, food security is synonymous with the adequacy of rice domestic supply for the Malaysian population. Therefore, to achieve the target set in Sustainable Development Goal 2 which is to achieve zero hunger, the rice sector needs to be more competitive by encouraging farmers to utilize modern technology. Smart farming is an emerging concept of farm management that combines information and communication technologies into modern machinery like IoT, drones, and Artificial Intelligence to increase the value of agricultural products as well as reduce the cost of production while improving the well-being of farmers through income increment. Therefore, this study is conducted to explore the adoption of smart farming among paddy farmers in one of the country’s granary areas which is in Barat Laut Selangor under the administration of the Integrated Agriculture Development Area. This study will employ qualitative methods and interviews will be conducted. This study is urgently needed due to the twofold agenda: Malaysia is moving towards a high-income country and the importance for food security assurance has been acknowledged.

Seeking of Agriculture Information through Mobile Phone among Paddy Farmers in Selangor

Introduction: Mobile phone is one of the communication tools that have always mattered in many fields included agriculture. The development of the agriculture sector in the rural area is significant to diminish poverty among farmers. Agricultural activities are known to provide opportunities for employment and generating income in the rural area. Poverty can be reduced through adequate investment and improvement in the agriculture sector. Enhancing the use of mobile phone will empower farmers with relevant agriculture information. Thus, agriculture production and profits as well as farmers’ food security and livelihood will increase. Methodology: This study uses a quantitative approach, where an adopted and adapted questionnaire was employed to obtain the data needed. Through purposive sampling, 400 respondents were surveyed. The respondents selected were those who are involved in paddy farming in Selangor. Results: The finding of the study reveals that paddy farmers in Selangor are comfortable using mobile phones in seeking agricultural information. The result for communication apps indicates that WhatsApp is the best choice to get information using a mobile phone as 279 respondents responded they were comfortable using WhatsApp to get and share information through a mobile phone. Whereas, the highest agriculture information the farmers sought are information on pest control, farm safety information, and information on pesticide/weed. Conclusion/Recommendation: Due to the well-received mobile phones usage among farmers, it is recommended that organizations such as the Department of Agriculture and Barat Laut Selangor Integrated Agriculture Development Area (IADA) to improve strategies in distributing information on paddy farming using mobile phones.

Planning of Agro-Tourism Development, Specific Location in Green Open Space Sarbagita Area, Bali Province

Tourism development has a negative impact on agricultural land in Bali, resulted in the transfer of rice field of 800 ha/year. Subak rice field area as a world cultural heritage, requires conservation strategy, increasing economic and environmental value, through integrated agriculture development with tourism. Tourism destination planning in the form of tourist destination (TD) and tourism object (TO) by raising local genius, at specific location, is expected to preserve nature and culture, as well as the economic value of the region. Research Methods: (1) identification of agrarian cultures, (2) field survey, (3) mapping of site specific TD/TO plans, and (4) compile documents of agro-tourism road map based on local genius. Seven subak areas in the green open space area have the potential to develop new TD/TO, namely: (1) Gedon2Subak in Tanah Lot area, is developed for the preservation of agriculture, the implementation of the zoning plan of the sacred, madya and nista areas, (2) the Kerdung and Penatih Subak areas, developed for urban farming in Denpasar City, (3) Cangi south Subak area, built for agro-tourism plasmanutfah banana and Cemagi Let Subak area developed agro-tourism food crops and horticulture, (4) Erjeruk Subak area, developed tourism plasmanutfah coconut.

The twilight zone of Indian agriculture: birthing and execution of integrated agriculture

This paper chalks out the trajectory of the Public Private Partnership for Integrated Agriculture Development (PPIAD), a policy platform which was conceived by global conglomerates and specific Southern government representatives and NGOs. In our view, PPPIAD decisively paved the way for corporate-led policymaking within the farm economy. We outline certain specific budgetary processes and directional changes within the agricultural research management system which created the necessary vacuum for emergence of a new leadership from the maturing forces of corporate globalization. Vast parts of the farm economy are yet untouched by PPPIAD, but the potential of the policy platform is enormous, given the fact that the target population of participants is small and marginal farmers. With over 80% of farm holdings being small and marginal, it would be interesting to observe how this policy spreads new kinds of production models, which are led by aggregators at one end, and an army of small and marginal farmers at the other end. Within this new model, the government’s role is that of a distant bystander, as a lot of room is made available to the corporate entity to design and execute the projects, while the recruited small and marginal farmers have little room to manoeuvre. We end the paper with some optimistic speculations regarding the possibility of emergence of genuine FPO managed supply chains

Creating New Market in Integrated Agriculture Development Area in Samarahan, Sarawak, Malaysia – Case Study in the Supply Chain of Cucurbita sp. (Pumpkin)

Cucurbita sp (yellow pumpkin) commonly grown in Malaysia. Being very easy to grow within two to three months and hold for as long as six months as fruit in the storage, it has been encouraged to be grown in Samarahan, which is considered a food belt in the northern region of Sarawak, Malaysia especially for Kuching. However, in reality, there is a limitation in the commercial production as the pumpkin is very much dependent on the market demand as the utilization has been limited to the consumption of fresh product. Thus this creates a bottleneck in the supply chain resulting in large stock being stored in the farmers’ places. This study explored a diversified supply chain model from the traditional pumpkin supply chain in Samarahan which follows a simple supply chain that is short and linear linking the farmers who are the producer to the consumer through the middleman and the retailers. The research supply chain model adopted a three level chain which had the combination of level one and level two supply chains, characterized more by the producers-collector-processing industry-consumers. The diversification of the supply chain resulted in establishing an added value link from the producers to the consumers with the integration of the processing industry adopting low technology of processing raw pumpkin to dehydrated powder form with the reduction of the need of a storage space by 80% and extending the shelf-life. The research model adopted the concept of food added value supply chain or value-based chain in order to achieve effective solutions regarding the production, marketing, distribution and sale of their produce.

Spot-5 multispectral image for 60-75 days of rice mapping

The objective of this study is to investigate the potential application of Spot-5 multispectral satellite data in monitoring rice cultivation areas in IADA (Integrated Agriculture Development Area) located at Kerian District, Perak Malaysia. Information of the rice cultivation areas is a global economic and environmental significance. Multi-spectral images acquired at high spatial resolution are an important tool, especially in agricultural applications. This paper addresses the relationship between normalize difference vegetation index (NDVI) and ancillary data acquired from Farmers Organization Authority (PPK) for 217 farmer's field in IADA Kerian. The results indicated that NDVI range 0.62 – 0.75 has a strong positive relationship with the ground survey area estimation with (r = 0.85; p <0.01) (r2 = 0.722). The r2 value of 0.722 indicated a statistically significant linear relationship between the rice area estimate using NDVI range 0.62 – 0.75 and on the ground surveyed data for 217 farmers' fields. The equation of unstandardized distribution can be described as Ŷ=0.0197+0.852x. The equation for standardized regression formula for this distribution is Ŷ= 0.850x. Thus, the results indicate that 60-75 days of rice area can be estimated from the following equation Ŷ=0.197+0.852x, where Ŷ is the predicted rice area and x is area calculated using NDVI range 0.62-0.75 in IADA Kerian Perak Malaysia. The results appear promising and rice mapping operations using SPOT-5 multispectral image data can be foreseen.

Issues and Challenges Facing Rice Production and Food Security in the Granary Areas in the East Coast Economic Region (ECER), Malaysia

This study is an effort to explore and investigate the issues and challenging are facing rice production and food security in Malaysia. It is also to identify the contribution of the granary areas in East Coast Economic Region (ECER) to the national food security. The important of rice as a staple food crop of Malaysia and is grown on 673,745 ha of land, producing annually 2.6 million tons of paddy grain valued at RM 2 billion, which is contribute with average growth rate of 3.7% of year, in the last five years. However, the current country’s self-sufficiency level for rice production is about 71.4% and the balance imported from countries abroad. Efforts are being undertaken by government to increase the productivity, cropping intensity prediction and crop acreage to cope with the growing demand for the produce. This study examines the various issues of rice production for food security and analyses the challenging of rice production in Malaysia. Various policies, strategies and programmes for rice production will be thoroughly analysed for attaining the study objectives. In the ECER, Kemubu Agricultural Development Authority (KADA), Kemasin Semerak and North Terengganu (KETARA) Integrated Agriculture Development Area (IADA) is among the granary areas, which emphasised on paddy cultivation to the country. The role of the area is important to enhance the self-sufficiency level of rice in Malaysia. Issues and challenges related to rice production, food security and self-sufficiency are discussed. Various efforts and government intervention have been implemented to ensure that these areas will remain as the important granary area. Several approaches to improve the productivity and stability of food production as well as outlining the agenda to ensure the country food supply are discussed.

Innovation Diffusion of New Technologies in the Malaysian Paddy Fertilizer Industry

There are a number of players in the domain of agriculture playing different roles as key stakeholders with different level of involvement and influence. Government agencies, agri-entrepreneurs and individual farmers are amongst those who play significant roles in ensuring sufficient food supply for the nation. The agriculture sector contributes significantly to the economic growth in Malaysia and in ensuring food security in the country. The recent occurrence of staple food crisis affecting many countries became severe when India, Vietnam and China had limited the exporting of rice to other countries. The overall development of paddy sector under the agricultural framework initiatives are carefully planned and implemented in the recent Economic Transformation Program (ETP). The aim of the initiatives is not only to ensure national food security but also to tap into the global market as the world population continues to grow driving for an increase in the demand. One of the quick win initiatives by the government in overcoming the crisis is to increase the soil fertility for paddy planting which requires promotion of new technology and rigorous research. The paper critically discusses innovation diffusion in the agricultural context with specific reference on the analysis of how innovation is diffused, its communication channels, and the dissemination movement. Preliminary findings of farmers’ experience on innovation diffusion process shall be discussed in this paper. Farmers at the granary area in Perak, under Integrated Agriculture Development Agency (IADA), had taken part in the study. The results indicate the level of farmers’ knowledge and information about fertilizer in general, management of the innovation dissemination process, and the extent of readiness in realizing innovations.

APPLYING SEASONAL CLIMATE TRENDS TO AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION IN TANJUNG KARANG, MALAYSIA

The North West Selangor Integrated Agriculture Development Agency (NWS-IADA) is the most productive agricultural part in Selangor, Malaysia. This is partly because of the inherent high fertil ity of the soils and the moderate variable climate. However, w ith increasing global concern about climate impacts , this article examines relative importance of climat e influences on the paddy production rate over 28 y ears (1980-2008). Data collection involved compiling and analyzing climate records from auxiliary station MARDI, Tg. Karang, Malaysia (Station no. 44325, 24 m M.S.L) at the coordinates of N 03° 27’ 17” E 101° 09’ 24”. The results indicate that the average rain fall recorded is 1, 765 mm which is similar to nati onal rainfall trend. Meanwhile, the daily humidity varie d between 94-96% (8.00 AM) and around 70% (2.00 PM) while the sunshine hours ranged between 2.3 to 9.5 h. A correlation analysis between the productio n yield and climatic data at the studied area for the year 2000-2008, showed that for precipitation; rai nfall is redundant during the main season while during the o ff season it bears direct effect on the production yield with the R 2 value of -0.293 and 0.1715, respectively; Sunshine hours and temperature demonstrate their importance to production yield as suggested with th eir respective R 2 values.

Paddy Production and Climate Change Variation in Selangor, Malaysia

The North West Selangor Integrated Agriculture Development Agency (NWS-IADA) has the most productive agricultural land in Selangor. This is partly because of the inherent high fertility of the soils, and the moderate variable climate. However, with the increasing global concern about climate impacts, there is a need to examine the issue and this article presents a study that examined the relative importance of climate influences on the paddy production rate over 28 years (1980-2008). Data collection involved compiling and analyzing climate records from MARDI Tg. Karang auxiliary station (Station no. 44325, 24m m.s.l) at the coordinates of N 03° 27’ 17” E 101° 09’ 24”. The results indicate that the average rainfall recorded was 1, 765 mm which is similar to the national rainfall trend. Meanwhile, the daily humidity varied between 94 – 96% (8.00 AM) and around 70% (2.00 PM) while the sunshine hours ranged between 2.3 to 9.5 hours. A correlation analysis between the production yield and climatic data at the studied area for the year 2000 – 2008 showed that for precipitation, rainfall is redundant during the main season while during the off season it bears direct effect on the production yield with R2 value of -0.293 and 0.1715, respectively. Sunshine hours and temperature demonstrate their importance to production yield as suggested by their respective R2 values.

Relationship between Decision-Making Inputs and Productivity among Paddy Farmers‟ in Integrated Agriculture Development Areas (IADAs), in Malaysia

The Malaysian paddy rice industry has always been considered as an industry that produces an important commodity which is the main staple food for the nation. The government, during the Tenth Malaysian Plan (2011-2015) period, set a target for every paddy farmer of 10 mt/ha, to ensure that the availability and accessibility of rice are maintained and sufficient. However, the latest production numbers from 2011 revealed that the average production per farmer from the main granary areas was still only 4.77 mt/ha, while in certain parts of the country - such as in the state of Selangor - farmers achieved up to 12 mt/ha. What is the cause of this disparity in production? Despite similarities in facilities, land area and resources, major differences remain in production. Although a multitude of factors could be relevant to this situation, this study aimed to focus on factors influencing the decisionmaking of farmers in correlation with farmers’ productivity. Nine (9) factors were identified that could contribute towards higher paddy productivity. The findings showed a positive and significant relationship between farmers’ productivity and knowledge about paddy (r = 0.159, p < .01), and a negative relationship with age (r= -0.148, p < .01). Hence, having knowledge about paddy farming and being young were the two factors most highly correlated with higher productivity in paddy. These results are an important first step towards understanding factors that could make the agricultural sector in Malaysia more sustainable by increasing the productivity of paddy farmers and increasing the supply of the national staple food.

Determining Risk Attitudes of Paddy Farmers in KETARA Granary, Malaysia

Paddy and rice industry has been an important agricultural sub-sector to the economy even prior to the independence. Despite heavy government investments in the forms of infrastructure development, provision of input and price subsidies, to enhance the growth of paddy and rice industry, paddy production faces numerous risks. This study examines paddy farmers' attitudes towards risk. Data were collected via personal interview in North Terengganu Integrated Agriculture Development (Ketara) Terengganu Malaysia, as the study area. The purpose of the study is to develop a scale for assessing risk attitudes of paddy farmers. The study used a standard questionnaire to elucidate information pertaining to demographic and risk attitudes. Respondents were asked to respond to 47 statements about managing risk, using Likert scales as the measurement. A total of 235 farmers were surveyed. The set of 47 statements on how farmers manage risks were included to develop the final refined scale of risk attitude statements. Reliability analysis indicates which statements contribute in explaining the risk attitudes and by deleting the statements will affect the reflection of risk attitudes. Cronbach's coefficient alpha was employed to evaluate the degree of communal variation of risk attitudinal scale. From 47 statements, the analysis established a refined 24 items scale which can be applied to measure the risk attitude of paddy farmers in the study area. The refined 24 item scale has the levels of communal variation of 73% caused by risk attitude, which is in an acceptable alpha Cronbach range. The further study on the 24-items refined scale of paddy farmer's risk attitudes revealed that farmers in Ketara are slightly to risk seeking than a risk neutral person.