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Problem of Agricultural

SectorIncreasing labor shortage, wages & cost of production as well as ageing farm labor &
preferences for non-farm jobsa. Labor shortage resulted in large acreage of idle agricultural landb.
Cost of production which includes wages and inputs is relatively high compares to countries like
Thailand and Vietnamc. The agricultural sector has become extremely dependent on foreign labor. In
2003, the plantation sector employed 327490 registered foreign workers or about 23% of total
agriculture workforce. It is forecast the figures will increase as many Malaysians prefer to work in
other sector

Not enough R&D in food cropsAgricultural is very vulnerable to factors like changes in climate,
disease and pest infestation. In the case of large scale aquaculture, disease outbreaks will be a major
problem unless and until quality control, good management practices and disease control are taken
care of

Poor productivity and quality of agricultural Shrinking acreage of land under agriculture product a.
The agriculture sector competes with other sectors for land when the economya. Slow pace of
replanting. Malaysia palms that moves toward industrialization. are more than 25 years will become
less productivity and hence increase cost of harvesting. Replanting needs at least 5 years b. The cost
of production of agricultural before they can start producing yield. products in the neighboring
countries is cheaper, this would affect internationalb. Traditional farming obviously yield lower
demand for local agricultural products. productivity and quality. Traditional farming Lower cost of
land and labor of the still makes up a bulk of our agricultural neighboring countries would force
sector. Malaysia to intensify on adding value to their product output (better yield Remedy / Solution:
outcome). i. Agricultural programs focus on c. Thus the government should gradually transforming
traditional farming into withdraw subsidies to promote commercial farming to increase efficiency
and prepare for challenges of productivity, competitiveness with market globalization. particular
focus on commercialization which includes marketing. ii. Consolidate small farm via group- farming
concept

Relatively low growth rate (compared to Lacks investors & Attitude problems other sector) a. The
agriculture sector in

Malaysia lacks of investors because it is risk venture due to the A lack of capital impedes its rapid
perishable factor. As in the food processing transformation, structural change and sector, high
capital investment is a constraint integration with manufacturing. A slow to investors. rate of
technological development and innovation with regard to product b. The attitude of farmers has not
been development, process and packaging encouraging. For example, high-yield breeds also
contributed to low growth rate have been introduced to farmers but they tend to neglect their farms
and do not manage them

Export-oriented crops Despite efforts to diversify, Malaysian agriculture has remained


predominantly export-oriented. By 1990, about 70% of the total cultivated agricultural area and 75%
of the gross crop out-put could be attributed to the perennial export crops of rubber, palm oil and
cocoa

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