Article,
Producers’ perceptions of public good agricultural practices and their pesticide use: The case of MyGAP for durian farming in Pahang, Malaysia
Asian Journal of Agriculture and Rural Development, 7 (1): 1-16 (2017)
Abstract
This paper investigates the local implementation of Malaysian public GAP
standard called MyGAP by examining its effectiveness in raising the
awareness and improving the pesticide use practices of participant smallscale
farmers toward better food safety and quality assurance. For this
objective, 19 MyGAP certified and 57 uncertified durian farms in the state
of Pahang, Malaysia were surveyed. The research found that certified farm
managers have a much better understanding of the basic intent of the
policy than uncertified farms, reflecting the individually oriented interests
and motivations of participant farmers in the national scheme. Their
interests in and assessment of the merits of the scheme are found to
concentrate in economic realms rather than in the original policy goal of
food safety and quality assurance. As regards pesticide use practices,
certified farms showed a much better performance than uncertified farms
in record keeping and pesticide use and management. There remains a
question, however, whether it is due to the farming practices improved
through MyGAP adoption or due to the participation of farms already
well-performing prior to MyGAP adoption.
