Knowledge and practices of cocoa smallholders on insect pest and its management at Sekinchan, Selangor / Noor Emyra Elias

Knowledge is important for cocoa cultivation to increase the quality and quantity of cocoa production. In Malaysia, 87% of the cocoa plantation cultivated by smallholders under the supervision of the Malaysian Cocoa Board (MCB). Knowledge also plays a significant role to assist smallholders in identifying pests and subsequently choose the most effective control methods for controlling pests.

This study is conducted focusing on the knowledge and practices of cocoa smallholders on insect pest and its management. The significance of this study is to provide a data that can be used for the future enhancement by the Malaysia Cocoa Board (MCB) to improve the smallholders’ knowledge. Future enhancement programs such as seminar, workshops, talk and short term courses can be provided to the smallholders by MCB and Department of Agriculture (DOA). Therefore, the objective of this study are to determine the knowledge of smallholders about insect pest and practices and also to study the relationship between knowledge and practices towards managing the insect pest. Total of 40 smallholders were selected as respondents during the survey conducted. The location was determined and selected by the MCB officer at Kampung Parit 7, Sekinchan, Selangor. Data collection done by conducting face-to-face interviews via questionnaire and was analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Science (SPSS) for correlations and ANOVA. The questionnaires are divided into 3 sections on background of the respondents, respondents’ knowledge on insect pest and how to control the insect pest in cocoa. Based on the data analyze, the result was found that there is significance difference (p = 0.013) between the education of smallholders and knowledge on insect pest. Meanwhile, the correlation also showed a significance difference (p = 0.001) between the education with the smallholders’ practices on insect pest. The study shows that cocoa smallholders in this locality are capable to identify insect pest and they know how to control the infestation. Thus it is important to educate smallholders continuously to ensure each of them have an ample knowledge to manage their farm especially in term of insect pest and its management.