UMK Procedia最新文献

Mango is the second major fruit crop in Pakistan. The domestic retail market for mango in Pakistan is dominated by small retail shops, street hawkers, and road side stalls. The fruit sold in these retail outlets is prescribed by the traditional quality standards of size, appearance and price. However the growth of superior outlets/supermarkets chain especially in the major cities are setting additional quality standards such as blemish free, improved packaging, prestige, convenience to deliver premium quality mangoes. Similarly the export market is mainly targeted to the expatriate Pakistani consumers rather than quality conscious foreign consumers. This is because of inadequate market information and understanding all along the chain. A whole of chain approach is undertaken to improve the market understanding in an ACIAR project. Since the approach is new, a conceptual framework is developed in order to asses the effectiveness of the approach. The results indicate that the participants all along the chain would change their practices if they find the compelling reason to change in their existing businesses.

This study investigates the purchase behavior of sheep traders in Kajiado County in Kenya. This is, to the best of our knowledge, the first investigation on sheep traders by the use of Best-Worst technique. A face-to-face questionnaire was undertaken in three livestock markets (Kiserian, Bissil and Mile 46) involving 108 traders. The results indicated that sheep traders are also involved in other types of animal trading, essentially cattle and goats. Income from sheep trading represents slightly less of the half of total incomes, with some differences between livestock traders’ groups (markets). Traders are generally involved in other business activities among the value chain essentially such as livestock production, fattening and slaughtering. Four attributes with different levels have been utilized to describe the Best-Worst experiment: sheep age, sex, breed and price. All sheep traders assign higher importance to the sheep breed. This is essentially the case of Dorper pure breed and Dorper x Red Maasai cross breed. Price attribute was the second most important factor for sheep traders with higher preferences for the two extreme price levels. Sheep age and sex were found of least importance for traders. Providing sheep smallholders with the appropriate animal breed characteristics will enable them match market demand and increase their incomes. This is one of tasks of ILRI Kapiti experimental farm.

After the price spike of 1974 the real price of food commodities continued to decline approximately at an average rate of 1 percent till 1999. But from the very beginning of twenty first century the world food price began to rise upward with high degrees of volatility both in nominal and real term. World Bank Global Food Price Index increased at an average annual rate of 6.5 percent between 2000 and 2012. Of this period since 2006 volatility has increased dramatically. Although projection based on historical data do not indicate actual shortage of major grains, but extreme global weather events due to climate change, will pose high harvest variation, which leaves fundamental food security risks for consumers and governments. This paper tries to focus on the cause and effects of the food price volatility in the way of summative content analysis of the existing literature and data available from World Bank and United Nation Food and Agricultural Organization. This paper also focus on possible ways to tackle the food price volatility in poor and developing countries as the people of these countries are the most vulnerable to unpredictable price spike.

Annually, Malaysia has to import approximately 30% of rice, including fragrant rice (Basmati and Jasmine type) to meet the shortage of domestic demand. The import of this specialty rice shows an up surging trend every year with a value of RM500 million. Mas Wangi or MRQ74 that has special characteristics and 80% similar attributes to Basmati type has been officially released in year 2005. The special characteristics such as long and slender grain shape, non- sticky and aromatic rice makes it preferred by Malaysian consumers and enabling it to tap the higher-end rice market, compared to normal white rice. The fragrant rice farming is one of the government initiatives to produce fragrant rice in large areas and needs full commitment from the farmers in non-granary areas. This study seeks to determine factors that influence new rice variety, MRQ74 adoption among paddy farmers in East Coast, Malaysia including the adoption behaviour. The study involved 28 farmers in non-granary areas in two districts; Pasir Mas and Tanah Merah, Kelantan via an in-depth interview approach. The results revealed that apart from the technology characteristics, there are other significant aspects that influence the adoption decision-making of the farmers such as extension services, capital resources, social influences, and institutional factor.

Inter-Organization Communication (IOC) is one of the used communication disciplines to communicate between two or more organizations. It is proven vital to sustain relationship between organizations particularly between consumers and suppliers. However, there is still lack of empirical research and findings in the subsidized market. Malaysian paddy farmers have been receiving fertilizers subsidy since 1971 making the environment of subsidized market stand more than 40 years long. The relation between Area Farmer Organization known as Pertubuhan Peladang Kawasan (PPK) and the subsidized fertilizer supplier has now extended to 30 years. PPKs are responsible on the procurement process of the subsidized fertilizer from the supplier. This paper presents a preliminary findings based on IOC theories of communication management between PPKs and the supplier based on the perspectives of the PPK. It will critically discuss the elements of IOC and communication commitments based on the perspectives of PPKs. Thirteen PPKs from Kemubu Agriculture Development Authority (KADA) granary area were involved in this study. The results indicate organization communication willingness, behaviour, and quality as communication commitment of the PPKs.

Contract broiler farming is one the system used to increase poultry production in Malaysia. Broiler contract farmers (BCF) participate in this system for having some benefits. This paper has evaluated economic performance of the BCFs in Perak. An economic evaluation of 60 BCFs was conducted in Perak to determine the performance of the system using economic performance analysis. Panel regression model was used in the analysis. This model involves price per bird (PRM) as dependent variable and size of farm (SOF), feed conversion rate (FCR), average body weight(ABW), average marketing age (AMA), mortality rate (MOR), and rearing housing system (DU). The results show that all variables, except SOF, are significantly influence the performance of BCF at five percent level of significance.

Transformation of Malaysia horticulture industry had detected transition from supply chain to value chain perspective as well as emerging of new type of intermediaries called the packers. However no major changes of marketing activity at farm level and stringent quality requirements at entry level impose by hypermarket, small scale production, coupled with the lack of integration across the value chain and limited compliance to global food safety are highlighted as the challenges in this industry. Intermediation might contribute to the chain deficiency process and actors. Nevertheless, relationship marketing approach had emphasized people as the main dimension on marketing research which may reveal the intangible aspect of the challenges. Therefore this paper proposed the conceptual framework to investigate the moderating effect of relationship marketing towards intermediaries’ roles and functions that contribute to smallholder business performance as well as the firm performance.

Food security is a concept originated in the mid-1970s. According to the definition of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), food security is a situation that exists when all people, at all times, have physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life. At the national level, food security is a situation whereby a country is able to cover the food requirements of its population on a continuous and stable basis. Malaysia, although a middle income country, has been a net food importer in the last four decades. In fact, the country has grown to depend more on imports for most important food especially rice. With these trends lurking, understanding the determinants of food security is important because it will help the policy makers keep abreast of the main variables for food security in Malaysia. This paper thus analyse the dynamic relationship between selected macroeconomic variables (biodiesel production, exchange rate, government expenditure on rural development, Malaysia's GDP, food price index and Malaysia's population) and food security in Malaysia using VAR approach. The variance decomposition also shows that biodiesel production, exchange rate and government expenditure on rural development variables will give the highest shock to food security in year ten. Whereas exchange rate and population in year five and finally GDP in year six. This model is a useful tool and reacts as an effort to better understand how food security reacts and is affected by the integration of domestic and global markets. It could also provide a more quantitative means of assessing food security, and in particular to pinpoint specific variables that explain the highest shock to food security at the national level. It would also benefit to consumers and policy makers.

Logistics is part of supply chain which involves many business entities such as suppliers, manufacturers, distributors and retailers. All these entities will work together to acquire raw materials and transform them into final products. Halal logistics is an approach to avoid contamination of perishable, raw materials and food products during transportation or distribution activities. It is also to avoid products missed information and to ensure that Muslim consumers will receive and consume only the Halalan Toyibban products. In Malaysian Standard for Halal Logistics (MS 2400:2010), halal logistics requirements according to Shariah law are including the requirement of logistics providers for transportation, warehousing and retailing. The requirement usually involved from processing to handling, distribution, storage, display, serving, packaging and labeling. There are few concerns regarding the implementation of halal logistics among logistics players. First, there is concern whether these players follow all guidelines and standards for halal logistics. Second, there is concern whether these players segregate their workers and facilities in producing and distributing activities for halal and non-halal products. This study seeks to investigate factors that influence readiness towards halal logistics among food-based logistics players. Face-to-face interviews were carried out with 156 managers representing logistics companies located in Peninsular Malaysia. Factor analysis was carried out to analyze the data obtained from the managers. The results revealed that support from management, enforcement of Halal Assurance System (HAS), environments controls, employee acceptance and company vision to change were the factors that influenced readiness towards halal logistics.

The recent data of nationally representative sample of 3380 households from rural Nigeria was used to examine the effects of participation in non-farm enterprise activities on household wellbeing. The propensity score matching result shows that participation in nonfarm enterprise activities has a significant positive impact on household wellbeing by all measures. This suggests that non-farm enterprises could be a pathway for improving the wellbeing of rural households in developing countries.