Factors affecting economic performance and willingness to pay of agricultural entrepreneurs in Betong District, Sarawak / Fareiny Morni ... [et al.]

The agricultural sector in Malaysia exists in a dualism, shared between large conglomerates and smallholders who operate on small parcels of land. Unlike large conglomerates who own numerous plantations throughout Malaysia, smallholders, especially rural farmers are among the poor and they face various issues in maintaining and operating their business operations. Rising costs, low prices for agriculture produce, disease, lack of infrastructure and many others are among some of the challenges that are borne by smallholders. What are the factors that affect the economic performance of rural entrepreneurs? And would the entrepreneurs be willing to pay to improve the facilities surrounding their business operations? This study attempts to investigate not only the background of rural entrepreneurs in Sarawak’s Betong district, it also examined the factors that would affect the performance of the entrepreneurs and identify the amount that they are willing to pay to contribute to the improvement of the facilities surrounding their business operations. Primary data collection and cluster sampling method were used and questionnaire survey were distributed to targeted respondents i.e. agricultural entrepreneurs around the Betong District.