Adoption on new paddy seed varieties among farmers in Muda Agricultural Development Authority, Malaysia

Malaysia’s economic report stated that the rice production is expected to achieve 86% self-sufficiency level by 2010. Currently, Malaysia has reached self-sufficiency’s level for rice at 73% (9th Malaysia Plan). The contribution in an agricultural sector especially rice production is very important for generating self-sufficient rice, reducing imported rice and increasing food security. Agriculture sector is also important to provide income, increase the rate of employment and escalate investment especially in rural areas. Malaysian Agricultural Research and Development Institute (MARDI) is a research institute that is involves in supplying quality seeds and planting materials to the farmers. Meanwhile, government agency such as MADA provides support services for farmers’ development programs such as producing high quality of paddy seeds to enhance socio-economic of the farmers (Fauzi and Wahab, 2013). However, farmers encountered many problems due to lack of knowledge and practices on new paddy seed varieties. The yield performances are different according to areas and farmers although they are using the same seed variety. Farmers’ knowledge and skill are the main factors contributing to the yield performance. Current studies have been conducted to identify the knowledge, attitude and skill that affect the adoption on new seed varieties. The research also determines the contribution of age, gender, education level, size of farm, and years of involvement in paddy experience. The primary data has been obtained from a questionnaire filled by 250 respondents of the farmers in Muda area in Kedah and Perlis. The respondents have been selected through random sampling technique. Descriptive Analysis, Chi-Square and Correlation analysis techniques are used to analyze the data. The analysis showed that the average age of farmers was 48 years old and majority of the participants have paddy farming experiences for more than 16 years. Most of them attended secondary school level of education and the average farm size was 2.01 hectares. The results showed that the level of respondents towards adoption of new seed varieties was in a high level with the value of 3.71. This level of adoption towards new seed varieties were driven by high level of farmers’ attitude, knowledge and skills with respective value of 3.90, 4.01 and 3.91. For the socio-demographic factors, only age and years of involvement had significant relationships with adoption on new paddy seed varieties. Meanwhile, the adoption on new seed was highly correlated with knowledge, but not to the attitude and skills of farmers. These results indicate that the knowledge plays an important role in affecting the farmers’ adoption towards new seed varieties. An Authority, which is the MADA agency should strive to maintain and further enhance the adoption on new seed varieties among farmers by providing training and guidance for them.

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