Factors contributing to adaptation practice towards climate change impact among oil palm smallholders in Peninsular Malaysia
Several existing inter-related climate phenomena and their associated impacts have contributed to the perception of oil palm smallholders in Peninsular Malaysia, making them more liable to be influenced by the resultant consequences. With a growing world population and rising living standards,...
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| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2019
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/85492/1/FP%202020%2034%20ir.pdf |
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| Summary: | Several existing inter-related climate phenomena and their associated impacts have
contributed to the perception of oil palm smallholders in Peninsular Malaysia, making
them more liable to be influenced by the resultant consequences. With a growing
world population and rising living standards, palm oil demand has been projected to
continue to rise in the coming decades. Oil palm smallholders in Peninsular Malaysia
are generally acknowledged as being more susceptible to impacts of climate change
and having less ability towards adaptation practices. Smallholders have contributed
about 40 percent under oil palm smallholding schemes in the country. With the
awareness of the potential and impacts of climate change, Malaysia may not be able
to achieve palm oil yield target of six tons per hectare. The situation clearly shows the
importance of extension services, attitude, and subjective norms among other
considerations as limited studies have been conducted in this area of interest.
Consequently, the present study aims at filling the voids by determining factors
contributing to adaptation practices towards impacts of climate change among oil palm
smallholders. The study specifically aims at determining several aspects including the
levels of adaptation practices and perception of impact of climate change which
encompasses extension services; attitude, and subjective norms. The study also
examines the relationships between perceptions of climate change impact, extension
services, attitude, subjective norms, and adaptation practices, as well as the mediation
effects of intention towards adaptation practices. The study was guided by an
integrated conceptual framework predominantly developed from protection
motivation theory and theory of reasoning action. A structured questionnaire was used
to interview 397 oil palm smallholders using a multi-stage cluster sampling technique.
Descriptive analysis and structural equation modeling were applied. The descriptive
findings revealed that oil palm smallholders played significant roles in adaptation
practices where the majority of them were found to be engaged in adaptation practices
and had good perception of impact of climate change. The majority of the respondents revealed that extension services have provided them with important sources of
information and had favorable attitude in the use of adaptation practices, clearly
showing that the view of others is essential in adaptation practices. The results of
structural equation modeling also indicated that extension services had the highest
contribution to adaptation practices. Mediating intention towards adaptation practices
also played a significant role, mediating three paths. At the conclusion of the study, it
was observed that adaptation practices, perception of impact of climate change,
attitude and subjective norms were at both high and moderate levels. It is therefore of
great significance to give greater knowledge and understanding to smallholders of the
issue at hand. As a proactive measure, it is important to enhance extension services
towards adaptation practices. The study proposes that the relevant government
agencies such as the Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB) and Federal Land
Development Authority (FELDA) to come up with an extensive training model on
adaptation practices and give an insight to the academicians/researchers in applying
and/or improving the model while accessing other adaptation practices towards impact
of climate change for future research. |
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