Basri Talib

Climate change induced adaptation by paddy farmers in Malaysia

The climatic factors are changing very rapidly in Malaysia. For the farmers to adapt with the changes, government and other external agencies are providing several supports. But still there is a gap between farmers’ adaptability with climate change and current level of supports. This study uses descriptive statistics, ordinal regression, and percentile analysis to measure the level of farmers’ adaptability to climate change as a result of the various existing supports and encouragements provided by the government and other external agencies, and new supports expected by farmers. The data were collected through questionnaire survey on 198 paddy producing farmers in the area of Integrated Agricultural Development Area (IADA), North-West Selangor, Malaysia. The study found that among current types of supports provided by different agencies, only farmers’ accessibility in the market is statistically significant for influencing their current adaptability to climatic changes. Though 58.6% of the farmers agree that government supports are enough to cope properly with climate change, 12.1% of farmers are not able to cope with climate change with the current level of supports. Farmers’ expectations of several new supports has no statistically significant influences on their current adaptability with climatic changes, but their priority ranking for these expected supports will help policymakers to determine the future supports for climatic change adaptation for agriculture sustainability and livelihood sustainability under adverse climatic changes scenarios, especially for Malaysia.

Paddy farmers’ adaptation practices to climatic vulnerabilities in Malaysia

The climatic factors in Malaysia have been changing very rapidly affecting agricultural productivity and farmers’ sustainable livelihood. Agriculture which depends heavily on climate is becoming increasingly vulnerable to risk and uncertainty. In order to face and manage the situation farmers are trying in various ways to adapt to these climatic vulnerabilities. This study analyses paddy farmers’ perception of climatic variations and vulnerabilities and focuses on the techniques they use to adapt to the situation. It uses primary data collected through a questionnaire survey on the paddy farmers in the Integrated Agricultural Development Area (IADA), North-West Selangor in Malaysia. Through a descriptive analysis of the data, the study finds that most farmers do not have a clear perception of the climatic changes and vulnerabilities. Farmers’ adaptation practices to the climatic vulnerability are mostly based on their common sense responses. It suggests that farmers need necessary training and support from the government and international agencies to make them able to effectively adapt to the climatic vulnerability and avert any adverse effect on their socioeconomic sustainability and national food security.

Agricultural Vulnerability and Adaptation to Climatic Changes In Malaysia: Review on Paddy Sector

Climate change has mixed impacts on agriculture and the impacts are different in terms of areas, periods and crops. The changing factors of climate have been exerting strong negative impacts on Malaysian agriculture, which is apprehended to result in shortages of water and other resources for long term, worsening soil condition, disease and pest outbreaks on crops and livestock, sea-level rise, and so on. Due to climate change, agricultural productivity and profitability is declining. Despite continuous increases of government subsidy, area of paddy plantation is decreasing and the adaption practices are ineffective. As climate change is universal and its existence is indefinite, the farmers need to adapt to and find ways to mitigate the damages of climatic variation in order to sustain agricultural productivity and attain food security for them.

Climate change adaptation policy in Malaysia: Issues for agricultural sector

Malaysia is one of the highly vulnerable countries due to climatic changes. Here the changes in climate factors cause adverse impacts on agricultural sustainability and relevant livelihood sustainability. To adapt to these changes a prudent adaptation policy is very important. Several countries follow different adaptation policy based on their localized socioeconomic and geographical status. While defining its adaptation policy, Malaysia also needs to consider several crucial factors. This study discusses issues relevant to the farmers’ adaptation to climate change in Malaysia and also provides few recommendations that will help policy makers to prepare the agricultural adaptation policy for climate change

Climate change and food security of the Malaysian east coast poor: a path modeling approach

Purpose - – The purpose of this paper is to examine the direct and indirect impacts of climatic changes as well as the effects of non-climatic factors on household food security in Malaysia. Design/methodology/approach - – The study is based on primary data collected in the months of July – October, 2012 through a questionnaire survey on 460 low-income households from East Coast Economic Region (ECER) of the country. The samples were selected from E-Kasih poor household database, based on cluster random sampling technique. The statistical estimation was done through two-stage formative path measurement model by using non-parametric bootstrap procedure under Smart PLS. Findings - – This study finds that household food insecurity ECER – Malaysia is not only related to social and economic factors, but also statistically significantly linked to the direct and indirect impacts of climatic factors. The policy implications of the study suggest that design of food security programs must be integrated with climatic change adaptation programs. Originality/value - – The government and other relevant agencies should jointly develop appropriate policies for poverty alleviation, household-level food security, and adaptation with climatic changes in Malaysia.

Climatic changes and vulnerability of household food accessibility: A study on Malaysian East Coast Economic Region

Purpose Sustainable food security at the household level is one of the emerging issues for all nations. Several factors such as social, economic, political, demographic, natural and livelihood strategies cause vulnerability in the status of household food security. This study aims to examine the vulnerability of the factors of household food accessibility and its linkage with the climatic changes in Malaysia. Design/methodology/approach The study is based on primary data collected in the months of July-October, 2012, through a questionnaire survey on 460 low-income households from the East Coast Economic Region (ECER) in Malaysia. The samples were selected from E-Kasih poor household database, based on the cluster random sampling technique. The questionnaire uses a five-point Likert scale, and the data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and ANOVA F statistics for chi-square two-sample test. Findings The study finds that the vulnerability of the factors of household food accessibility has increased statistically and significantly over the past five years in Malaysia, whereas the contributions of climatic factors are low on these changes. This study suggests that the food security programs in Malaysia need to be integrated with the climatic change adaptation programs to ensure more effective and sustainable household food security in the future. Originality/value This study is an original work based on primary data that empirically measures the vulnerability of the factors of household food accessibility, one of the important dimensions of household food security, and its linkage with climatic changes.

Climatic changes and household food availability in Malaysian east coast economic region

Sustainable food security at household level is one of the emerging issues for all nations. There are several factors such as social, economic, political, demographic, natural, and livelihood strategies that causes to the vulnerability of the status of household food security. Therefore examining the vulnerability of these factors is essential to identify the reason and recognize the most vulnerable communities. This study is an attempt to study on the vulnerability of the factors of household food availability and its linkage with climatic changes in Malaysia. The study is based on primary data collected in the months of July – October, 2012 through a questionnaire survey on 460 low income households from East Coast Economic Region (ECER) in Malaysia. The samples were selected from E-Kasih poor household database, based on cluster random sampling technique. The study found that the vulnerability of the factors of household food availability has decreased statistically significantly over the last five years period in Malaysia for the factors of effectiveness of food distribution process, road and transportation facility for food distribution process, availability of expected food in the local market, sufficiency of expected food in the local market, and stability of food supply in market. The mean values of the current status of the factors of household food availability differ significantly at 1% significance level from the scenario of 5 years ago. However, most of the cases climatic issues were found less responsible for the changes of these factors. Though Malaysia is adversely affected by climatic change, the factors of food availability are not affected yet remarkably. This study suggests that the food security programs need to be integrated with climatic change adaptation programs to ensure more effective and sustainable household food security in future, especially among the poor and low income group. Moreover, a proper monitoring agency is required to ensure consistent supply of food in the rural and remote areas, especially at the time of natural calamity or off season.

Measuring Consumers' Environmental Responsibility: A Synthesis of Constructs and Measurement Scale Items

It is universal that central to all production is consumption. Without proper management, production along with consumption is likely to be the main sources of environmental problems. This very reality calls for consumers to be environmentally responsible in their consumption behavior. The objective of this paper is to prepare a synthesis of all the possible factors and measurement scale items to be used for assessing consumers’ environmental responsibility. For making such synthesis, all major works done on the field have been thoroughly reviewed. The paper comes up with a total of six parameters that include knowledge & awareness, attitude, green consumer value, emotional affinity toward nature, willingness to act and environment related past behavior. These tentative, yet inclusive set of parameters are thought to be useful for guiding the designing of large scale future empirical researches for developing a dependable inclusive set of parameters to test consumer’ environmental responsibility. A conceptual model and possible measurement items are proposed for further empirical research.

Grameen microcredit and poverty alleviation: a review of Grameen Bank’s performance on poverty alleviation in Bangladesh

This paper reviews empirical evidence on the common findings from the existing literature on Grameen Bank (GB) microcredit performance on the borrowers poverty alleviation in Bangladesh. We first examine the GB microcredit impact on poverty alleviation with respect to its members income, consumption, health, childrens education and women empowerment. In general, most of the findings from the literature have shown that Bank members are doing well to reduce their vulnerability and to increase income and consumption, health improvement literacy of children and empowerment compared to non-members and controlled groups. However, this paper also examines some criticisms about the effective uses of microcredit rather than commercial mentality for profit making of microfinance institutions (MFIs).

Kecekapan Teknikal Pertanian Padi di Indonesia: Kajian di Pulau Jawa

Kajian ini menggunakan Analisis Sempadan Stokastik (SFA) untuk menganggarkan tahap kecekapan teknikal dan menganalisis penentu ketidakcekapan teknikal dalam pertanian padi di Pulau Jawa, Indonesia. Data kajian ini adalah berdasarkan kaji selidik struktur kos pertanian padi yang dijalankan oleh Biro Pusat Statistik Republik Indonesia pada tahun 2008. Kawasan kajian terdiri daripada tiga daerah pengeluar padi di Pulau Jawa, iaitu Jawa Timur, Jawa Tengah, dan Jawa Barat. Keputusan kajian menunjukkan bahawa purata kecekapan teknikal di daerah Jawa Timur adalah 0.851. Manakala, di daerah Jawa Tengah dan Jawa Barat masing-masing adalah 0.836, dan 0.805. Pendapatan petani memberi kesan negatif dan signifikan kepada ketidakcekapan teknikal. Sebaliknya, umur petani, sumber pembiayaan dan saiz tanah memberi kesan positif dan signifikan kepada ketidakcekapan teknikal. Seterusnya, kesan pemboleh ubah lain seperti pendidikan formal, bantuan keraban dan marau bencana dan banjir ke atas ketidakcekapan teknikal adalah berbeza-beza mengikut kawasan.