Modelling the Demand of Fresh Meat by Households in Malaysia

There have been some changes in Malaysians’ food preference as Malaysia is one of the most developing countries in Asia. These changes in consumption pattern have some impact on the agriculturally based food industry. One of the changes is in the preference for fresh meat such as poultry, beef, mutton, and other meat. This study is focusing on demand elasticity of fresh meat by households in Malaysia. This study has obtained demand elasticity of fresh meat via Linear Approximate Almost Ideal Demand System (LA-AIDS). Data from the Household Expenditure Survey (HES) 2014 has been used to build a statistical model in estimating the demand elasticity

Analysis of wage distribution in Malaysia

Labor force demand in Malaysia has grown significantly over the decades since the independence era. Changes in economic structure have led to changes in labor force utilization. There are hundreds of studies had been done to investigate the determinants of wages, including human capital factor, demographic factor as well as job characteristic. The objective of this paper is to examine the determinant of wages in Malaysia using the Salaries and Wages Survey, 2016 conducted by the Department of Statistics Malaysia. Based on the analysis of mean differences, the average wage is significantly different for all variables, including age, ethnicity, marital status, education level and occupation. Even in the analysis of the distribution for men and women, the difference in average wage is also identified for each occupation category and sector of the industry

Modelling the Demand for Fresh Meat in Malaysia

Malaysia is one of the most developing countries in Asia. Hence, there have been significant changes in Malaysians’ food preference. These changes in consumption pattern have some impact on agri food industry in Malaysia. One of the changes is the preference towards fresh meat such as beef, poultry, mutton and other meat. This research will be focusing on demand of poultry meat in Malaysia. Data from Household Expenditure Survey 2014 will be used in order to build a statistical model in estimating the demand for poultry meat. The development of the demand model will be based on best subsets regression approach

Factors affecting the export demand of Malaysian palm oil

This paper develops studies made on determinants for export demand of the Malaysian palm oil in the world market especially in top importing countries. The factors comprised in the analysis such as total area planted, production of palm oil, number of population, country’s import of palm oil, price of palm oil and its substitutes, GDP of own country and importing countries, exchange rates (MYR/USD) and even to downstream details on number of mills, refineries and biodiesel with oleochemical plants and number of production of palm oil’s food and non-food products. For this paper, Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) Regression using model building approach of Multiple Linear Regression (MLR) is being used to obtain the best model equation. Result obtained reflects a different findings from other studies regarding the factors that affect the export demand which are the production of palm oil, price of substitutes (fish oil), and palm oil based product (RBD palm olein) that significantly affects the demand for Malaysian palm oil export

Ujian dalam Menghadapi Bencana Gempa Bumi Berdasarkan Pengalaman Masyarakat Muslim di Lahad Datu, Sabah

Natural disasters are an unavoidable nature, and this phenomenon has been proven to occur either from a religious or scientific perspective. From the Islamic point of view, natural disasters considered as test of faithfulness. This study endevours to conceptualise the meaning of trial and its relation to the understanding of the Muslim community in Lahad Datu. The study discusses action taken by them in facing this natural disaster. This study employed quantitative method through distributing questionnaires around the district of Lahad Datu. The descriptive analysis was done to analyse the relationship between the demographic background of Muslim respondents with their level of understanding and knowledge of earthquake as a test of God. The results showed that majority of respondents, 80 percent, had experienced an earthquake. The average knowledge of the respondents about the history of the earthquake in Lahad Datu is at a minimum level and it can be said that the knowledge about the earthquake is based on the current or latest knowledge that they have experienced themselves. Nevertheless, respondents had a basic knowledge of earthquake as shown on the physical actions they took after an earthquake such as being aware of increasing the level of family safety and participating in disaster awareness programs. The results also show the respondents’ belief that the earthquake is a test of God can be true because their actions and practices after the earthquake are more towards positive practices that are not contrary to Islamic teachings. The study concludes that a holistic approach through the integration of science (geology) and religion (Islam) should be highlighted as a method for improving disaster risk reduction management in Malaysia, especially victims involving the Muslim community

Kesedaran beragama masyarakat Kundasang dan Ranau kesan daripada bencana gempa bumi

Pada 5 Jun 2015 yang lalu, rakyat Sabah telah diuji dengan satu bencana gempa bumi yang berlaku di daerah Ranau. Bencana yang mengakibatkan banyak kemusnahan alam sekitar, harta benda dan nyawa ini meninggalkan kesan yang amat mendalam terhadap penduduk Ranau dan Kundasang. Gegaran dengan skala richter 5.9 ini turut dirasai di daerah sekitar iaitu Kota Kinabalu, Kota Belud, Kudat dan Telupid. Perspektif Islam menjelaskan bahawa bencana atau musibah ini adalah ketentuan Qadha’ dan Qadar Tuhan kepada manusia. Bagi memahami kaitan antara agama dan bencana, maka kajian ini dijalankan untuk mengetahui kesedaran beragama masyarakat Muslim di Kundasang dan Ranau kesan daripada kejadian gempa bumi yang berlaku pada tahun 2015. Kesedaran beragama diukur melalui sikap masyarakat setempat dalam penyertaan upacara Posogit dan tindakan amalan beragama yang mereka lakukan selepas kejadian gempa bumi. Pengumpulan data menggunakan kaedah kuantitatif dan kualitatif di sekitar Kundasang dan Ranau dengan mengedarkan soal-selidik dan wawancara maklumawan (informan) kekunci dari kalangan pemimpin agama dan pemimpin masyarakat bagi mendapatkan maklumat tentang komitmen dan kesedaran beragama dalam kalangan masyarakat Muslim selepas kejadian gempa bumi. Analisis statistik melalui jadualan silang dengan ujian khi kuasa dua Pearson telah dilakukan bagi melihat hubung kait antara latar belakang demografi penyahut (responden) iaitu kumpulan umur dengan sikap dan amalan mereka terhadap upacara Posogit. Hasil kajian menunjukkan bahawa umur mempunyai perkaitan dengan sikap dan amalan terhadap kepercayaan animisme iaitu upacara Posogit. Kesedaran beragama berada pada tahap sederhana dan disifatkan pada mulanya tinggi namun lama kelamaan semakin longgar. Kajian terhadap kesedaran beragama berupaya menyumbang kepada ketahanan diri dan kekuatan dalaman dalam menghadapi tekanan selepas bencana gempa bumi

The impacts of permanent food production park programon the participants’ knowledge, attitude, practice and income: a case study in Tawau, Sabah

Permanent Food Production Park program (or in Malay called as program Taman Kekal Pengeluaran Makanan, TKPM) is a strategy under Third National Agricultural Policy (DPN3). Tawau TKPM was started in 2008 with financial provision from the Federal Government. The project site was allocated by the Sabah State Government. The total area of the project was 92.3 hectares and divided into 59 lots, planted with various food crops. Currently, there are 43 entrepreneurs or participants involve in the project. The main purpose of this study was to identify the impacts of the implementation of Tawau TKPM on the knowledge, attitude, practices and income of the participants. The data for the study consisted of primary and secondary data. The primary data were obtained through questionnaire, while the secondary data were obtained from the records and reports published by the Department of Agriculture Sabah. All of the participants in the TKPM project in Tawau were selected as the respondents. The results of the Pearson’s chi-square test revealed that The TKPM project has certainly given a significant impact to the participants’ knowledge, attitude, and practices toward the good agricultural practices. The project at some extent has also successfully improved the participants’ income. The study also found that the TKPM project requires certain duration of participation to be effective since the participants are dealing with different types of food crops. The findings of the study can be used as a reference to the authority to enhance the effectiveness of this project as well as other similar projects if to be implemented in the state in the future

Forecasting cocoa bean prices using univariate time series models

The purpose of this study is to compare the forecasting performances of different time series methods for forecasting cocoa bean prices. The monthly average data of Bagan Datoh cocoa bean prices graded SMC 1B for the period of January 1992 - December 2006 was used. Four different types of univariate time series methods or models were compared, namely the exponential smoothing, autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA), generalized autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity (GARCH) and the mixed ARIMA/GARCH models. Root mean squared error (RMSE), mean absolute percentage error (MAPE), mean absolute error (MAE) and Theil's inequality coefficient (U-STATISTICS) were used as the selection criteria to determine the best forecasting model. This study revealed that the time series data were influenced by a positive linear trend factor while a regression test result showed the non-existence of seasonal factors. Moreover, the Autocorrelation function (ACF) and the Augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF) tests have shown that the time series data was not stationary but became stationary after the first order of the differentiating process was carried out. Based on the results of the ex-post forecasting (starting from January until December 2006), the mixed ARIMA/GARCH model outperformed the exponential smoothing, ARIMA, and GARCH models