Agricultural Waste Management (AWM) system in Cameron Highlands, Pahang / Nurul Syamimi Fauzi

The illegal dumping of agricultural waste around Cameron Highlands is becoming a growing concern to environmentalists and government. This is because Cameron Highlands is one of the agricultural hubs for fruits and vegetable cultivation in peninsular Malaysia and is also listed as an eco-tourism site. The problem of agricultural waste management here cannot be solved by mere provision of more waste dumping stations or transportation alone. To address the indiscriminate dumping of agricultural wastes by farmers, there is an urgent need for innovation, to better understand the current and potential role of formal and informal stakeholders, so as to effectively manage the large chunk of agricultural wastes generated daily. Thus, this study examines the processes farmers adopt in management of wastes generated from their farms and the role played by various stakeholders. Through non-probabilistic purposive sampling, 62 farm owners and 13 representatives from various government agencies, service providers and local authority were selected for the interview. The in-depth interview session involved writing down of responses on sheet of paper and audio recording.