MPOB-UKM ENDOWMENT CHAIR

 

The Awareness and Economic Impacts of Geospatial Information and Technologies Application in Malaysian Palm Oil Industry

2017

Abstract

The agriculture sector is being challenged for higher yield in the time of scarce resources of fertile land and hard labor. To adapt, large farms are increasingly exploiting precision farming to increase yields, reduce waste, and mitigate the economic and security risks that inevitably accompany agricultural uncertainty. Traditional farming which is based on regional conditions and historical data in making decisions related to planting, harvesting, irrigating, and applying pesticides and fertilizer is no longer an effective approach. Hence, growers move to adapt precision farming, through the application of geospatial technology i.e. combines sensors, robots, GPS, mapping tools and data-analytics software to customize the care that plants receive without increasing labor. In the case of palm oil production, the use of geospatial information and technologies is relatively new in Malaysia. However, it provides tremendous benefits to palm oil production. Nevertheless, the substantial investment cost hinders many firms to adopt it in palm oil plantations. Therefore, this study aims to understand the awareness of the application of geospatial information in decision making and geospatial technology adoption among the growers especially in precision farming. Secondly, the study intends to investigate the current application of geospatial information and technology among the major producers of palm oil. The study also investigates the challenges and costs of using geospatial application in the production. Ultimately, the study attempts to quantify economic value of the application of geospatial technology and assess its productivity impacts to the firm. The finding is expected to provide significant input from the cost benefit analysis to create understanding of the importance of geospatial information and technology adoption in managing oil palm farming. The evidence from this study is hoped to stimulate the application of geospatial technology and to encourage support from the policymakers for geospatial technology application in this industry.

Project Leader

Nor Liza Abdullah (Faculty of Economics and Management, )