Assessment of Government Agriculture and Rural Development Expenditure Impact on the Malaysia’s Agriculture Production

This study is focused on determination of the important factors that have affected the agriculture production in Malaysia. The data on interest rate (IR) and government agriculture expenditure (GE) were collected from Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) monthly bulletin statistic. Besides that, the number of labor use in agriculture sector (LA) was collected from the World Development Indicator (WDI). All data collected were based on the time series (annually) from 1983 to 2016. In this study, the Augmented Dickey Fuller (ADF) and Philips Perron (PP) tests are used to determine the stationary of the time series data and the overall findings showed that the time series data are stationary at order one or I(1). In this study, the result of Engle Granger (EG) co-integration test was used and stated that all the factors were co-integrated with the agriculture productivity. However, the GE2 and interest rate (IR) are the only factors that showed a negative relationship. In the long run, all the factors are significantly affecting agricultural productivity, while the interest rate is insignificant to determine the agriculture production. Furthermore, the Error Correction Mechanism (ECM) model showed that all the factors are significantly influencing the agricultural production in Malaysia except the interest rate. In the nutshell, this study suggests that the policy maker should take the precautions in the budget spending in agriculture sector, which should not exceed the threshold spending of RM3,057 million.

Factors Influencing Consumers’ Behaviour Towards Fraudulent Dietary Supplements

Dietary supplement fraud cases have become a major concern among consumers due to proven damage and effects on the health and lives of consumers. An increase in the risk of food safety might result from the high consumption of dietary supplements fraud. However, fraudulent activities are difficult to verify due to the lack of awareness of dietary supplements among consumers. Thus, this study was carried out to achieve the following objectives i) to determine consumers’ behaviour towards fraudulent dietary supplements and ii) to determine factors that influenced consumers’ behaviour towards fraudulent dietary supplements. A purposive sampling method was used to select 400 respondents and a structured questionnaire was established to collect the data. Descriptive analysis, Pearson correlation analysis, Chi-square analysis, factors analysis, and multiple regression analysis were the statistical analyses employed to analyze the data. The results revealed that most of the respondents were aware of fraudulent dietary supplements. Socio-demographic profiles such as age, race, religion, and education level had significant associations with consumers’ behaviour towards fraudulent dietary supplements. There was a weak positive relationship between knowledge and attitude of consumers towards fraudulent dietary supplements. Subjective norms, awareness, attitude, and perceived behavioral control were the factors that influenced consumers’ behaviour towards fraudulent dietary supplements. The study recommended that government and relevant authorities should continuously organize awareness campaigns and activities on food fraud especially for dietary supplements to ensure the consumers gained more knowledge thus, increase their awareness of fraudulent dietary supplements.

Contributions of Agricultural Economics Research towards Sustainable Natural Resources

The global concerns on sustainability issues such as scarcity of natural resources, rapid environmental degradation, intense international competitions, and imbalanced of social equities are increasing, resulting in growing attention towards sustainable use of natural resources, especially in the agriculture sector. Natural resources, both renewable and non-renewable are a part of the real wealth for a nation which can contribute towards fiscal revenue, income, and poverty reduction (OECD, 2011). In the agriculture sector, natural resources can be used to provide occupations in enhancing the livelihoods of the poorer communities.

Marketing Channel Selection by Pineapple Smallholder Growers in Samarahan, Sarawak

The surging demand of pineapple creates opportunities for smallholder growers in maximising their income. However, the pineapple is a type of fruit that is very perishable in nature, thus it requires immediate sale to consumers for them to get the best quality of the fruit. Moreover, its commodity price also depends on its quality on the shelves. In this respect, it is important for the smallholders to decide for the best marketing channel to distribute their farm produce to get maximum profit. This study was conducted to investigate the preferred pineapple marketing channel among smallholder pineapple growers in Samarahan, Sarawak. Questionnaires were distributed to 123 respondents and the data was analyze using SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Science) version 22. The findings show that the most popular marketing channel is farmer’s market.

Factors that Influence Acceptance of GM Labels on Halal Food Among Muslim Consumers

Genetically modified (GM) foods are produced from the development of modern biotechnology and gene combinations of the same or different species. GM foods have become an important issue among Muslim consumers in consuming halalan toyyiban food produced from GM foods. This in line with the decision of Muslim consumers in the selection of halal food that is closely related to faith, religion, and culture in the Islamic society. Labeling on food packaging is an important indicator of every food product in the market by Muslim consumers to determine the halalness of a food product. Therefore, the objective of this study is to determine factors that influence acceptance of GM labels on halal food among Muslim consumers. By using purposive sampling, 320 Muslim consumers were selected located in Klang Valley, Malaysia. An interviewer-administered questionnaire with the target consumers was carried out to obtain consumers’ responses. Several analyses were employed to analyze the data namely descriptive analysis, Chi-square analysis, Pearson correlation analysis, and factor analysis. The results of this study revealed that the majority of Muslim consumers were not aware of GM labels on halal food. There were significant associations between age, education level, and monthly income and Muslim consumers’ acceptance of GM labels on halal food. The relationship between awareness and acceptance showed a weak positive relationship. This study also revealed labeling characteristics, religious belief, and health concern are the three factors that influenced Muslim consumers’ acceptance of GM labeling on halal food. This study emphasizes that a continuous encouragement to food manufacturers in providing and displaying proper labeling on food products would assist Muslim consumers to enhance their awareness and acceptance of GM labels.

Youth’s Intention to Venture into Agriculture Sector

This study attempts to determine the factors influencing youth’s intention to venture into agriculture sector. Since Malaysia is a developing country, unemployment is one of a major issue especially youth unemployment. Malaysia government recognised that agriculture sector is an important sector to contribute nation GDP followed by service and manufacture. Government implemented actions through programmes for attracting youth’s intention. However, youth still lack of intention to venture into agriculture sector. Data was gathered through survey questionnaire on a total of 245 respondentswho are 15 to 40 years old. Data was analysed by using SPSS system and analyse methods are descriptive analysis, factor analysis, Chi square analysis and multiple regression analysis. Based on the result, it can conclude that youth’s intention will be affected by knowledge, attitude and acceptance as well as gender, age, marital status and education field of youth. By setting agriculture as an obligatory subject and offering agriculture based activities, there are recommended to government, agricultureagencies and universities to take responsibilities of attracting youth to venture into agriculture sector.

ADOPTION OF SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING AMONG AGROPRENEURS IN PENINSULAR MALAYSIA

Social media has become one of the main platforms for businesses around the world to markettheir products or services. However, some entrepreneurs still feel doubtful whether social mediamarketing is effective enough compared to the traditional marketing on seeking attention fromtheir targeted audience based on the different generation. Besides, people still think that socialmedia is used as the medium for people around the world to socialize with everyone instead ofmarketing their product or services, especially agro-based products. Entrepreneurs also did not usesocial media marketing because they do not have the sufficient knowledge on how to fully utilizethe social media to market their product. This will hinder them from using social media marketingin their business because they might need more time and assistance to learn how to employ socialmedia marketing. Thus, the main objective of this study is to investigate the adoption of socialmedia marketing among agropreneurs in Peninsular Malaysia. Primary data was collected usingstructured questionnaire via online survey. The questionnaire have been distributed through socialmedia platforms and e-mailed to the targeted respondents using purposive sampling method. Atotal of 113 respondents from 12 states in Peninsular Malaysia was successfully participated inthis study. Data collected was analyzed using descriptive analysis, chi-square analysis and factoranalysis. The results of this study indicated that the adoption level of social media marketingamong agropreneurs in Peninsular Malaysia is on the medium high level and the highest socialmedia platform adopted is Facebook. Besides that, the results of chi-square analysis showed thatrespondent’s demographic and business profile including gender, age, education level and typesof agro-based business operated has an association with the adoption of social media marketingamong agropreneurs. The results of factor analysis discovered four factors that influencingadoption of social media marketing among agropreneurs namely; perceived usefulness, socialinfluence, perceived ease of use and facilitating conditions. Hence, entrepreneurs that alreadyadopted social media marketing should cooperate and create an association of online agropreneursto encourage other entrepreneurs so that they start adopting social media marketing.

Household Preferences for Food Waste Management System

Improper waste management has received remarkable attention from the stakeholders due to itsnegative impacts. Due to the increase in population, the waste generated in Malaysia also is increasing. Currently, landfilling is the main method of disposal. Considering few issues related with this approach such as the landfills have reached its capacity, environmental pollution as well as the bad condition of the landfill, alternative measure to manage the waste is crucial. Food waste can be utilized into other uses such as converting into fertilizer, electricity generation as well as the alternative for fuel. However, in order to implement such program, innovative measure for appropriate management of the food waste collection are required. In order to encourage the participation of household on food waste management, determining the preferred attributes by the household is crucial. Therefore, this study attempts to determine the household preferences for food waste management system in Malaysia as well as their willingness to pay for the food waste management system. The discrete choice experiment was used in order to accomplish the objectives of the study. The findings from this study suggests that the frequency and time of food waste collection are among the preferred attributes for food waste management system. The result also suggests that the willingness to pay for food waste management significantly varied by income and age of the respondents. Thus, it is suggested that if the government decides to come out with food waste management program, frequency and pick up time of the food waste are among important attributes that need to be considered.

GENERATION Z’S AWARENESS OF EATING AT HALAL CERTIFIED RESTAURANTS

Halal food indeed remains the main concern among consumers when they decide to eat outside. As there are many different approaches in choosing a restaurant among consumers especially youngsters, the halal status of these restaurants usually raises some critical issues particularly on ingredients used as well as halal certification and logo. Hence, this study was carried out to investigate the level of awareness among Generation Z (Gen Z) towards eating at halal certified restaurants, to examine the association between socio-demographic profiles of Gen Z and level of awareness towards eating at halal certified restaurants and to determine factors that influence Gen Z towards eating at halal certified restaurants. Data was gathered via self-administered questionnaires with 1,050 Gen Z respondents. Descriptive analysis, mean score analysis, Chi-square analysis, and factor analysis were used to analyze the data. The results revealed that a low level of awareness was found among Gen Z towards eating at halal certified restaurants. The results also showed a few socio-demographic profiles to have associations with the awareness level towards eating at halal certified restaurants. Five factors were revealed to influence Gen Z towards eating at halal certified restaurants namely halal certification and logo, religious responsibility, lifestyle, social influence, and attitude. As the level of awareness among Gen Z towards eating at halal certified restaurants was found to be low thus, relevant awareness programs and halal campaigns should be carried out more frequently to increase their level of awareness on halal.

AGROTOURISM PREFERENCES FACTORS AMONG URBAN DWELLERS IN KLANG VALLEY AREA

Agrotourism is a catalyst for initiation of the sustainable tourism activities and diversifyingrural activities. As agriculture is the fourth contributors to the country’s economic development, this sector has vast areas to offer the tourists to feel the excitement from farm and its resources. Agriculture and tourism have their own ability to develop and grow. The collaboration of both strong industries have strengthened the tourism industry in Malaysia. The objective of this study was to determine the agrotourism preferences among urban dwellers in Klang Valley. The findings revealed that most of the respondents agreed that payments for agrotourism activities should be reasonable and satisfactory as the statement showed the highest mean score (4.41). This means that, the payments charged to the customers must comply with what the agrotourism has been offered to them. Most of the respondents also agreed that finding agritourism locations through modern application like Google Maps and Waze should be easy as it has the highest mean score (4.54) on the statement. This was supported by the current trends of the public who are always connected to these applications to easily find any places at any time. Most of the respondents agreed that agrotourism products and activities should be suitable for all range of ages. This is because, public see tourism andleisure time as a valuable time to spend with family members and friends from all range of ages to tighten the relationship. 345 respondents (89.1%) agreed that the major challenges in agrotourism was the issues of lack of information about agrotourism itself. Information is important in order to create publicity about this industry. Results from this study will serve as a guide for authorities in finding ways about how to promote the agritourism based on the respondents’ preferences towards this industry in Malaysia.