PERCEPTION ON NEW PADDY VARIETY AMONG PADDY FARMERS IN TERENGGANU, MALAYSIA

Abstract

This paper employed survey data to identify paddy farmers’ perception towards new paddy variety in IADA KETARA granary area in Terengganu, Malaysia. Systematic random sampling techniques was used to select the respondents. Face-to-face interview among 110 respondents was conducted by using structured questionnaire. The objective of this study is to investigate paddy farmers’ perception towards new paddy variety. The results show that socio-demographic of respondents in IADA KETARA area represents 98.2% of respondents are male and the rest of 1.8% are female farmers. The most predominant age group of the respondents are between 41 to 50 years old represents 28.2%.. About 62.7% of respondents were secondary educated, 27.3% primary educated, 5.5% non-formal educated and 4.5% were tertiary educated. The mean value analysis considered that farmers have positive perception as the overall mean value for advantages statement is 5.44 while mean value for disadvantages statement is 4.21. Chi-square analysis found that there are significant association between farmers’ age, education level and farm assistant towards knowledge about new paddy variety.