Perceptions by Smallholder Farmers of Forest Plantations in Malaysia

Plantation forests are perceived to be the supplementary source of wood material for the large wood products industry in Malaysia, amidst the steadily reducing supply from her natural forests. Despite the government’s initiated plantation forests scheme, the participation of smallholder farmers has...

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Main Authors: Jegatheswaran Ratnasingam, Florin Ioras, Saeid Reza Farrokhpayam, Manohar Mariapan, Hazirah Ab Latib, Liew, Kang Chiang
Format: Article
Language:English
English
Published: MDPI 2021
Subjects:
Online Access:https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/32182/1/Perceptions%20by%20Smallholder%20Farmers%20of%20Forest%20Plantations%20in%20Malaysia.pdf
https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/32182/2/Perceptions%20by%20Smallholder%20Farmers%20of%20Forest%20Plantations%20in%20Malaysia1.pdf
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author Jegatheswaran Ratnasingam
Florin Ioras
Saeid Reza Farrokhpayam
Manohar Mariapan
Hazirah Ab Latib
Liew, Kang Chiang
author_facet Jegatheswaran Ratnasingam
Florin Ioras
Saeid Reza Farrokhpayam
Manohar Mariapan
Hazirah Ab Latib
Liew, Kang Chiang
author_sort Jegatheswaran Ratnasingam
collection UMS
description Plantation forests are perceived to be the supplementary source of wood material for the large wood products industry in Malaysia, amidst the steadily reducing supply from her natural forests. Despite the government’s initiated plantation forests scheme, the participation of smallholder farmers has been limited. Smallholder farmers constitute the largest proportion of private farmers involved in all sectors of agricultural and plantation tree crop cultivation, including commodities such as rubber and palm oil. Therefore, this study examines the lack of interest among smallholder farmers to participate in establishing forest plantations, although they have a strong presence in the palm oil and rubber sectors. A structured questionnaire survey was conducted among 12,895 smallholder farmers currently involved in palm oil, rubber and other tree-crop cultivation. The study found that this group has little knowledge and awareness of the forest plantation scheme available, and there is a prevailing perception that the establishment of forest plantations is not environment-friendly and leads to biodiversity loss. The poor economic return, small land holding, and poorly structured market and supply chain are perceived as the significant constraints faced that limit the interest among the target groups to participate in this sector. Any effort to reverse this trend and garner higher interest from the target group will necessarily require a new policy framework that boosts the economic outlook of forest plantations among smallholder farmers.
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spelling ums.eprints-321822022-04-01T07:14:10Z https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/32182/ Perceptions by Smallholder Farmers of Forest Plantations in Malaysia Jegatheswaran Ratnasingam Florin Ioras Saeid Reza Farrokhpayam Manohar Mariapan Hazirah Ab Latib Liew, Kang Chiang SD1-669.5 Forestry Plantation forests are perceived to be the supplementary source of wood material for the large wood products industry in Malaysia, amidst the steadily reducing supply from her natural forests. Despite the government’s initiated plantation forests scheme, the participation of smallholder farmers has been limited. Smallholder farmers constitute the largest proportion of private farmers involved in all sectors of agricultural and plantation tree crop cultivation, including commodities such as rubber and palm oil. Therefore, this study examines the lack of interest among smallholder farmers to participate in establishing forest plantations, although they have a strong presence in the palm oil and rubber sectors. A structured questionnaire survey was conducted among 12,895 smallholder farmers currently involved in palm oil, rubber and other tree-crop cultivation. The study found that this group has little knowledge and awareness of the forest plantation scheme available, and there is a prevailing perception that the establishment of forest plantations is not environment-friendly and leads to biodiversity loss. The poor economic return, small land holding, and poorly structured market and supply chain are perceived as the significant constraints faced that limit the interest among the target groups to participate in this sector. Any effort to reverse this trend and garner higher interest from the target group will necessarily require a new policy framework that boosts the economic outlook of forest plantations among smallholder farmers. MDPI 2021 Article PeerReviewed text en https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/32182/1/Perceptions%20by%20Smallholder%20Farmers%20of%20Forest%20Plantations%20in%20Malaysia.pdf text en https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/32182/2/Perceptions%20by%20Smallholder%20Farmers%20of%20Forest%20Plantations%20in%20Malaysia1.pdf Jegatheswaran Ratnasingam and Florin Ioras and Saeid Reza Farrokhpayam and Manohar Mariapan and Hazirah Ab Latib and Liew, Kang Chiang (2021) Perceptions by Smallholder Farmers of Forest Plantations in Malaysia. Forests, 12. pp. 1-20. ISSN 1999-4907 https://www.mdpi.com/1999-4907/12/10/1378 https://doi.org/10.3390/f12101378 https://doi.org/10.3390/f12101378
spellingShingle SD1-669.5 Forestry
Jegatheswaran Ratnasingam
Florin Ioras
Saeid Reza Farrokhpayam
Manohar Mariapan
Hazirah Ab Latib
Liew, Kang Chiang
Perceptions by Smallholder Farmers of Forest Plantations in Malaysia
title Perceptions by Smallholder Farmers of Forest Plantations in Malaysia
title_full Perceptions by Smallholder Farmers of Forest Plantations in Malaysia
title_fullStr Perceptions by Smallholder Farmers of Forest Plantations in Malaysia
title_full_unstemmed Perceptions by Smallholder Farmers of Forest Plantations in Malaysia
title_short Perceptions by Smallholder Farmers of Forest Plantations in Malaysia
title_sort perceptions by smallholder farmers of forest plantations in malaysia
topic SD1-669.5 Forestry
url https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/32182/1/Perceptions%20by%20Smallholder%20Farmers%20of%20Forest%20Plantations%20in%20Malaysia.pdf
https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/32182/2/Perceptions%20by%20Smallholder%20Farmers%20of%20Forest%20Plantations%20in%20Malaysia1.pdf
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