Production and input-use efficiency in the harvesting activities of medicinal plants in peninsular Malaysia / Mohd Azmi, M.I … [et al.]

The increasing awareness on herbal remedies and the demand of
herbal products leads to rising requirements for local raw medicinal
resources by the traditional medicine industries. Although the
dependence of the industries on the amount of local medicinal
plants required for the production of herbal products is still low
when compared to imports, some local medicinal plants are known
to be used as the main ingredients in the herbal products processing
by Malay traditional medicine manufacturers. Using data from a
survey on 33 medicinal plant collectors in Peninsular Malaysia, a
descriptive profile of collectors of medicinal plant resources was
obtained to provide an overview of the socio-economics of the
industry in terms of demographic characteristics of collectors,
frequency, duration and travel distance of collecting trips, cost
and revenue structure, and production inputs and output. An
estimation of a Cobb-Douglas production function was done to
determine the relationship between major inputs and medicinal
plant production. Both labour and capital inputs in harvesting
activities are statistically significant in affecting the amount of
medicinal plants harvested. In terms of factor input utilisation,
labour input is found to be excessively used when compared to
capital input. Both inputs provide positive value marginal products
but only for capital was the value marginal product in excess of
the cost of its acquisition suggesting that efficiency could be gained
by raising capital input utilisations. In the case of labour input, it
Jurnal Gading is more efficient for collecting activities to downsize its labour
force.