Roles of Extension Agents Towards Agricultural Practice in Malaysia

It is expected that the income generated by paddy industry will increase up to 988 million per year. In order to achieve this, extension agents plays important role in educating farmers by encouraging them to learn, adopt new technologies and spread them to other farmers. To ensure the success of extension program, the agents should recognize their roles as change agents (as a catalyst, solution giver, process helper, and resource linker) and have ability to acquire competencies to accomplish these roles. Thus, this study aims to explore the level of roles among extension agents. Using a quantitative survey methodology, self-administered questionnaires measuring the roles of extension agents as change agents. A total of 117 extension agents had participated in this study. The extension agents were the officers from various agricultural departments and agencies who serve paddy farmers in Malaysia region in related to extension, marketing, financing, farmers association, production, and others. The finding showed that the level of roles among extension agents is high. Hence, the competency of extension agents in Malaysia is indeed especially as a change agents and one of the important determinants of success for agriculture industry in Malaysia. This study emphasized that in order to improve the performance of agricultural extension agents, one of the way is by getting to know their competencies, skills and abilities. The extension agents, Farmers, policy makers, researchers, academics and people working in agriculture can learn a great deal about what individuals and institutions need to do to develop farmers, personally and professionally

Roles of extension agents towards agricultural practice in Malaysia

It is expected that the income generated by paddy industry will increase up to 988 million per year. In order to achieve this, extension agents plays important role in educating farmers by encouraging them to learn, adopt new technologies and spread them to other farmers. To ensure the success of extension program, the agents should recognize their roles as change agents (as a catalyst, solution giver, process helper, and resource linker) and have ability to acquire competencies to accomplish these roles. Thus, this study aims to explore the level of roles among extension agents. Using a quantitative survey methodology, self-administered questionnaires measuring the roles of extension agents as change agents. A total of 117 extension agents had participated in this study. The extension agents were the officers from various agricultural departments and agencies who serve paddy farmers in Malaysia region in related to extension, marketing, financing, farmers association, production, and others. The finding showed that the level of roles among extension agents is high. Hence, the competency of extension agents in Malaysia is indeed especially as a change agents and one of the important determinants of success for agriculture industry in Malaysia. This study emphasized that in order to improve the performance of agricultural extension agents, one of the way is by getting to know their competencies, skills and abilities. The extension agents, Farmers, policy makers, researchers, academics and people working in agriculture can learn a great deal about what individuals and institutions need to do to develop farmers, personally and professionally

The Ninth Malaysian Plan and agriculture extension officer competency: a combination for intensification of paddy industry in Malaysia

Agriculture interest in Malaysia has risen. This can be proved through government plans stated in The Ninth Malaysian Plan. One of the agriculture sectors that can be benefited through this plan is paddy industry. It is expected in 2010, the income generated by paddy industry will increase up to 988 million per year, thus depicts the potential it has. Paddy industry in The Ninth Malaysian Plan will be boosted through land rehabilitation and consolidation, increase number on R&D, paddy farmers will be exposed to more agriculture trainings, bigger credit allocation and better drainage and irrigation systems. In order to achieve this, the competency of agriculture extension officer is needed. Based on the previous studies, communication training is indeed important aspects that need to be intensified to strengthen the competency aspect of the agriculture extension officers. Previous studies also has show consistent findings that job performance, attitude, skills, knowledge, quality and quantity of works, use of technology and demography factors play important roles in cultivating competency to agriculture extension officers

The Ninth Malaysian Plan and FAO Extension Officer Competency

Agriculture interest in Malaysia has risen. This can be proved through government plans stated in The Ninth Malaysian Plan. One of the agriculture sectors that can be benefited through this plan is paddy industry. It is expected in 2010, the income generated by paddy industry will increase up to 988 million per year, thus depicts the potential it has. Paddy industry in The Ninth Malaysian Plan will be boosted through land rehabilitation and consolidation, increase number on R&D, paddy farmers will be exposed to more agriculture trainings, bigger credit allocation and better drainage and irrigation systems. In order to achieve this, the competency of agriculture extension officer is needed. Based on the previous studies, communication training is indeed important aspects that need to be intensified to strengthen the competency aspect of the agriculture extension officers. Previous studies also has show consistent findings that job performance, attitude, skills, knowledge, quality and quantity of works, use of technology and demography factors play important roles in cultivating competency to agriculture extension officers

Impact of personality traits on work performance in tidal paddy production in the Gambia: a review

Efficient personality is central for effective work performance in tidal paddy farming. Improve rice productivity in the Gambia is essential for stakeholders as it is main actor in achieving food self-sufficiency and security. The aim of this paper is to confirm the impact of personality traits on work performance. Furthermore, to determine the relation between the personality traits for the paddy farmers with work performance; and also to identify the strength of the traits relation with work performance for paddy farmers. This paper uses previous works on personality traits, work performance, and its related studies and looked at how the seven personality traits (willingness to take risks, information seekers, problem solving ability, willingness to spend on capital, extensive network of information, dare to make decisions, and highly disciplined) of paddy farmers and work performance can be used to boost urban food supply through rice production. The need for appropriate development programs is required as one of the options to generate income and improve livelihood of farmers in developing countries

Informal Learning in Malaysia

This paper presents findings from the first attempt in Malaysia to investigate the participation of adults in informal learning outside workplace and formal educational setting. The study finds participation in informal learning is high. Informal learning through reading activity seems to concentrates around matters related to religion

Awareness education of sport supporters on aggressiveness phenomena in sporting events / Tan Chee Hian … [et al.]

Study showed awareness education that learnt and performed by sport supporters were no matter whatsoever factors: Gender, Age, Higher Educational Institutions (HEIs) Attended, Types of sport, Favorite sports or Ethnicity were highly alert and aware especially on the phenomena of aggressiveness in sporting events. Supporters had learned skills of managing on those incidences were in good form as far as awareness education perspective was concerned where it involved sociological that emphasizing on “outside” of one person which involved surrounding of the person whom take part. As conclusion, the level of study among supporters played a vital factor to influent the awareness level among them toward aggressiveness phenomena in sporting events, this study managed to roundup several research questions with hypotheses investigated

Webcast technology in teaching: It’s implementation from the perspective of instructors

The paper reports issues relating to the use of three modes of webcast technology in the teaching of two undergraduate courses, namely, BTK4003 (Bioinformatics) for Bachelor of Science (Biotechnology) programme at the Faculty of Food Science and Biotechnology, and DCE 3301 (Learning at Workplace) for Bachelor of Science (Human Resource Development) programme at the Faculty of Educational Studies at the Universiti Putra Malaysia. The study, aimed in determining the effectiveness of using webcast technology at the university was carried out in two phases over a period of two successive academic sessions. This report focuses on the experiences and perceptions of the observers who were instructors of the two courses. Lectures were conducted via three different modes of webcasting: i) Live streaming; ii) Pre-recorded streaming; and iii) Video-on-demand. The fourth group, which is the control group received live face-to-face normal lecture. Observations noted by instructors during the actual exercise were reported back to the research team to be compiled throughout the duration of the study. Findings show that experiences relayed by instructors who participated in the study ranged from the instructors’ state of readiness to be involved in the study to the management of students’ behaviour and the quality of network and connectivity. Lessons learned throughout the course of the study as well as some recommendations on best-practises are discussed

Factors influencing farmers in Cameron Highlands to use insecticide in cabbage cultivation

The alarming negative effects of insecticide used in farming have caused growing concerns by many people. Due to that, various strategies were established to curb the overuse of insecticide, particularly on cabbage cultivation in Cameron Highlands, which is one of the major vegetable producing regions in Malaysia. Unfortunately, the rates of insecticide use remain highly variable. It is the responsibility of the government to shoulder and tackle this problem effectively, especially in finding out the main reasons why insecticide is preferable as the main insect pest control management. This study employed Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) and Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) to understand farmers’ specific attitudes (SA), subjective norms (SN), perceived behavioural control (PBC) and past behavior (PB) towards insecticides use in Cameron Highlands. Simple random sampling procedure was used in selecting 370 cabbage farmers for the study. Five-point Likert scale questionnaires were used to collect data. The data was collected through survey interviews and was analyzed using inferential statistic (correlation and regression). Results of the analysis showed a significant relationship between SA, SN, PBC, PB and the farmers’ intention to apply insecticide in the coming season. PBC was the most important influential factor for behavioural intention, followed by PB, SA and NS

New enviromental friendly initiatives in the production of Melomas (Citrus grandis) in Kuala Kangsar, Perak, Malaysia

‘Melomas’, a new pomelo clone (Citrus grandis) was introduced to the public in 1998 by MARDI. Several pilotprojects involving the planting of Melomas were conducted to further promote this pomelo clone. One of theseprojects was conducted in Stesen MARDI Kuala Kangsar, Perak and as a result, healthy and vigorous pomelo treeswere grown. In 2007, the pomelo trees managed to produce an abundance of flowers, but surprisingly the fruitsetting had died and almost no harvesting was done. A very low harvest was reported due to an occurrence offungus in numerous locations in Northern Perak in 2007 and 2008. A study was conducted beginning fromJanuary 2007 to December 2011 to tackle this phenomenon. It was noticed that every flowering season coincidedwith high daily rainfalls. The relatively high humid conditions had increased the incidence of Anthracnoseinfection that caused the young flower bud to die and undeveloped fruit sets to drop unattainably. The heavyrainfall severely prolongs raindrop smears on the flower fruit set. Almost every Melomas grower faced the samepredicament. This case study was designed to intervene and stop the causal fungus infection brought by the rain.Transparent plastic covers (TPC) were introduced to prevent raindrops from continuously smearing the flowerbunch. It was stapled onto the branch above the bunch of flowers to form a small half cylinder plastic roofing thatprevents the raindrop falling onto the small fruits. To tackle the problem, a series of workshops and technologytransfer seminars were arranged for the Melomas growers by the MARDI extension personnel. The results showedthat the manipulation of the microenvironment around the flowers had helped the grower to recover andeventually increase the Melomas yield. It was observed that this low-cost technique had significantly increased thenumber of Melomas fruit sets as opposed to the control treatment (without plastic covers). This technique hadbeen practiced by local pomelo farmers in Padang Rengas, spanning over an area of 35 ha and it is being practicedin a pilot project at MARDI Kuala Kangsar. It has a proven 85% success rate and has been reported to significantlyboost the productivity in the area