Adaptation of sustainable practices among oil palm smallholders / Taufiqurahman Mohd Shaifuddin

The demand for palm oil has increasing over the several decades and it has led to criticism and question about the sustainability on biodiversity loss, pollutions and deforestation. European Union (EU) plan to boycott and do not want to buy palm oil from Malaysia due to impact of expansion oil palm cultivation. Our oil palm smallholders contributed roughly almost 40 percent from the total oil palm planted in this country which accounted 28 percent from the dependent smallholders and 12 percent from the independent smallholders while, private sector contributed at 60.7 percent. However, it also poses a serious threat due to unawareness of sustainability issues by the smallholders. The aim of the study is to examine the sustainable practices of smallholding scheme in Malaysia from the attitude, economic, social and environment perspectives. The primary data is collected through a questionnaire survey to 108 samples from the 150 of total active population of oil palm smallholders under FELDA scheme in the FELDA Kemendor, Jasin, Melaka in Malaysia. Statistical Package for Social Science was being used for correlation and regression analysis. The results for correlation analysis were significant relationship for economic sustainability and social sustainability variables toward dependent variable while for regression it was economic sustainability variable become the most influenced factor toward sustainable practices among oil palm smallholders. The result indicates that dependent smallholders have enough awareness about the important of sustainability practices towards sustainability. It’s also revealed that most of dependent smallholders adapt more on economic sustainability and social sustainability through the income and poverty level.