OBJECTIVE
To identify the knowledge, perception, and practices of oil palm smallholders toward Ganoderma basal stem rot (BSR) disease in Sabah.
DISCUSSION & CONCLUSION
A cluster analysis on the knowledge of the respondents towards BSR disease showed that there were two categories of respondents, and the level of their knowledge is significantly associated with their category of smallholders either independent or organized smallholders. The factor analysis revealed there were two main problems faced by the respondent in dealing with the disease, namely lack of knowledge about the disease and lack of money, labour and time to overcome the disease. In terms of practices, most of the respondents did not conduct any census on the disease, did nothing to the infected palms, and did nothing to prevent their field from being infected. This study has found that most of the oil palm smallholders especially the independent smallholders know nothing about the disease and did not realize whether the disease has attacked their fields or not. As a conclusion, the knowledge of oil palm smallholders towards BSR disease is still low.
PUBLICATION & OUTPUT
Human resource – 1 Master and 6 undergraduate students (Final year project)
Conference – Knowledge, perception and practices of oil smallholders toward ganoderma basal stem rot disease in Sabah. Paper presented at the International Postgraduate Conference on Agricultural and Biological Sciences (IPCABS 2014). Organized by International Postgraduate Network (IPN) in Langkawi, Seaview Hotel, Malaysia. 17-18 October 2014
Journal - Journal of Applied Science and Agriculture Science (ISI / Thomson Reuters journal (ISSN: 1816-9112) (special issue International Postgraduate Conference on Agricultural and Biological Sciences (IPCABS 2014)
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This project (FRGS No.: FRGS/1/2013/SS07/UMS/03/12) was funded by Ministry of Education Malaysia REFERENCES
Idris, A. S., Mior, M. H. A. Z., Maizatul, S. M. and Kushairi, A. 2011. Survey on status of Ganoderma disease of oil palm in Malaysia 2009-2010. Proceedings of the PIPOC 2011 International Palm Oil Congress. Kuala Lumpur Convention Center, Malaysia, 15-7 November 2011 235-238.
MPOB. 2014. Background. http://mpob.gov.my/research-a-development/biology-research-division/1421-ganodrop-background. Access on 14 July 2014.
Roslan, A. and Idris, A. S. 2012. Economic impact of Ganodermaincidence on Malaysian oil palm plantation: A case study in Johor. Oil Palm Industry Economic Journal 12(1): 24-30Catell, R. B. 1966. The Scree Test for Number of Factor. Multivariate Behavioral Research 61: 245-276.
Assis Kamu1, Bonaventure Boniface1, Abdul Rahim Awang1, Affendy Hassan1, Mohammad Amizi Ayob2, Siti Kalsom Yulo1
1Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Jalan UMS, 88400 Kota Kinabalu, Sabah
2Universiti Malaysia Kelantan, Beg Berkunci 36, Pangkalan Chepa, 16100 Kota Bharu, Kelantan Email: [email protected], Tel: +088-320 000 ext 5813
Problem or issue Component
1 2
Do not know how to detect the disease .908
Do not know how to cure the infected palm .932
Do not know how to prevent from being infected .917
Lack of money to tackle the disease .657
Lack of labour to monitor the disease .891
Lack of time to monitor the disease .906
Lack of exposure on the disease .643
Practices N %
Have you ever checked whether your field infected or not?
Yes 90 38.5%
No 144 61.5%
How frequent do you conduct the checking? 1-2 a year 15 6.4%
3-4 a year 20 8.5%
≥ 5 a year 47 20.1%
Not sure 8 3.4%
Not relevant 144 61.5%
What did you do to the infected palms? Apply treatment 57 24.4%
Nothing 177 75.6%
In order to prevent your field from being infected by the disease, what did you do?
Nothing 188 80.3%
Injection of fungicide 11 4.7%
Fertilizer 29 12.4%
Others 6 2.6%
MATERIAL AND METHOD
This cross-sectional survey covers 234 oil palm smallholders sampled from different districts in Sabah, which include Tawau (24.4%), Semporna (12.8%), Pitas (14.5%), Sandakan (9%), Beluran (7.7%), Kota Marudu (7.3%), Kudat (7.3%), Keningau (7.3%), others (9.7%). The data has been collected using structured questionnaire through face-to-face interview with the oil palm smallholders which include organized and independent oil palm smallholders. A multistage sampling method has been used in selecting the respondents. Eight dichotomy items were used in measuring the knowledge, while the perception of respondents towards BSR disease was measured by Likert scale’s items. Chi-square test, cluster analysis, and factor analysis were used in analyzing the data.
*The chi-square statistic is significant at the .05 level
Figure 2: Demographic Characteristic according to Cluster
Table 1: Problems Faced by the Respondents
Table 2: Practices in managing Ganoderma disease
Figure 1: The respondents’ knowledge on BSR
KNOWLEDGE, PERCEPTION AND PRACTICES OF OIL PALM
SMALLHOLDERS TOWARD GANODERMA BASAL STEM ROT DISEASE IN SABAH
RESEARCH BACKGROUND
Ganoderma basal stem rot (BSR) is one of the oil palm disease, present in more than 50% of the oil palm fields in Malaysia (Idris et al., 2011). The disease has given significant negative impact on the oil palm yield (Roslan and Idris, 2012). Unfortunately, many oil palm smallholders did not realize that their fields were being infected with the disease and failed to recognize the extent of the disease incidence (MPOB, 2014).
RESULTS
94.10% 80.90% 73.50% 95.60% 72.10% 50.00% 73.50% 30.90%
15.10% 6.60% 0.60% 5.40% 5.40% 3.00% 3.00% 2.40%
0.00%
10.00%
20.00%
30.00%
40.00%
50.00%
60.00%
70.00%
80.00%
90.00%
100.00%
Have heard about the disease Know the cause of the disease Know the symptoms of the disease Know the spread mode can be from plant to plant Know the spread mode can be through root contact Know the disease can attack as early at nursery stage Know the disease can kill palm without visible symptom Know at least one non- visual detection method Cluster 1
Cluster 2
28.60% 42.90% 28.60%26.60% 57.10% 16.20%
0.00%
10.00%
20.00%
30.00%
40.00%
50.00%
60.00%
<= 40 years old 41-60 years old > 60 years old Cluster 1 Cluster 2
19.10% 26.50% 39.70% 14.70%
20.00% 34.50% 36.40% 9.10%
0.00%
5.00%
10.00%
15.00%
20.00%
25.00%
30.00%
35.00%
40.00%
45.00%
Never attend
formal school Primary school Secondary
school STPM/
University Cluster 1 Cluster 2
54.10% 19.70% 26.20%
61.00% 20.10% 18.80%
0.00%
10.00%
20.00%
30.00%
40.00%
50.00%
60.00%
70.00%
Experience <= 10 years
Experience 11 - 20 years
Experience > 20 years
Cluster 1 Cluster 2
42.60%
73.50%
57.40%
26.50%
0.00%
10.00%
20.00%
30.00%
40.00%
50.00%
60.00%
70.00%
80.00%
Cluster 1 Cluster 2
Independent smallholders Organized smallholders
