International Journal of

ADVANCED AND APPLIED SCIENCES

EISSN: 2313-3724, Print ISSN: 2313-626X

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 Volume 7, Issue 7 (July 2020), Pages: 109-118

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 Original Research Paper

 Title: Socio-economic development of palm oil smallholders in Malaysia

 Author(s): Junaidi Awang Besar 1, *, Mohd Fuad Mat Jali 1, Ahmad Rizal Mohd Yusof 2, Al-Amril Othman 1, Rosmadi Fauzi 3

 Affiliation(s):

 1Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, The National University of Malaysia, Bangi, Malaysia
 2Institute for Ethnic Studies, The National University of Malaysia, Bangi, Malaysia
 3Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

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 * Corresponding Author. 

  Corresponding author's ORCID profile: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1521-6827

 Digital Object Identifier: 

 https://doi.org/10.21833/ijaas.2020.07.014

 Abstract:

Malaysia is the world’s second-largest producer, and a major exporter, of palm oil commodities. Making up to 46.9% of Malaysia’s GDP in an agricultural contribution for the year 2015, palm oil commodity has also increased rural farmers’ earnings, and a majority has succeeded in getting out of poverty. This article aims to analyze issues and suggestions for strengthening the socio-economic development of palm oil smallholders through our case study in the state of Terengganu Darul Iman. Realistically, this study used face-to-face interview methods and secondary references to obtain raw data and information. Then both data and information will be qualitatively analyzed. Finding has shown ten issues confronted by oil palm smallholders such as the technique used to cultivate the oil palm, their awareness of latest technology in oil palm, lack of capital, low wages in oil palm commodity, transportation, subsidies by the government, labor problems in the fields, inconsistent prices of an oil palm, pestilence and its diseases. To overcome these issues, this study has made some recommendations to strengthen the socio-economic development of palm oil planters through advisory, exhibition, inspection to oil palm fields, and other efforts such as downstream crops. 

 © 2020 The Authors. Published by IASE.

 This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

 Keywords: Palm oil plantation, Income, Socio-economic development, Advisory services, Downstream crops

 Article History: Received 10 May 2019, Received in revised form 17 April 2020, Accepted 25 April 2020

 Acknowledgment:

Acknowledgments and thanks are addressed to Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) for granting permission and approval to me to be involved in the production of this paper. The writing of this work is the result of research data obtained from the EP-2017-050 coded research grant, the Malaysian Palm Oil Board, Malaysian Palm Oil Board, Ministry of Plantation Industries and Commodities Malaysia with the title of “Socio-economic Impact Study and the Prospect of Palm Oil Plantations in the Hulu Paka, Dungun, Terengganu”; and Centre of Research Instrumentation Management (CRIM), UKM and also research grant SK-2017-002, Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities for the financial support of high impact publication.

 Compliance with ethical standards

 Conflict of interest: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

 Citation:

 Besar JA, Jali MFM, and Yusof ARM et al. (2020). Socio-economic development of palm oil smallholders in Malaysia. International Journal of Advanced and Applied Sciences, 7(7): 109-118

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