The farmers awareness level on important rice husk green marketing perspective / Wan Nur Aina Syahirah Wan Anuar

In Malaysia, the rice (Oryza sativa) is the most essential food crop which have been cultivated worldwide. Rice is the main of carbohydrate. It produces a large number amount of waste by-product of which is paddy husk or rice husk. Rice husk is the coating on seed or grain of rice. The rice husk is formed from hard materials, including silica and lignin. Rice husk has brought value product which able for farmers to commercial as a new product. The commercialization of rice husk product in Malaysia become low as compared with other international rice. It is because the farmers in Malaysia are not aware on the beneficial of rice husk. The objective of the study was to determine the factors that influence the farmer awareness level on importance of rice husk. The survey method was used is data collection and data was obtained at Ladang Mulong Merdeka, Kampung Banggol Chicha and Kampung Tegayong. The questionnaires were distributed to 92 respondents, which is 83 males and 9 females. Statistical package for Science Computer Software (SPSS) was used to analyse the result and interpret based on reliability test, descriptive analysis and factor analysis that related to variable of farmers knowledge, environmental concern and government policy in this study. Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Measure of Sampling Adequacy (KMO) was 0.951 indicated that the value was acceptable which means factor analysis was appropriate for the data. Factor analysis result show that knowledge was dominant attribute which represented by three factors that eigenvalues more than 1, factor 1 (knowledge), factor 2 (environmental), factor 3 (government policy). Therefore, it can be concluded that there was relationship between farmers knowledge towards the awareness level on the importance rice husk. As a recommendation, the government should state a policy that farmers must act on managing rice husk as a second resources for additional income. As we know, rice husk has many advantages such as composting sources in agriculture, fuel in generating electricity, silica gel husk and sorbent in wastewater. From this study, I gain positive result from them regarding on their farmers awareness level on important rice husk.