KEBERKESANAN INTEGRASI SAWIT MENINGKATKAN PENDAPATAN PEKEBUN KECIL SAWIT: KAJIAN KES DI JOHOR, MALAYSIA (The Effectiveness of Oil Palm Integration Practices in Increasing the Oil Palm Smallholders’ Income)

Abstract

Tanaman kelapa sawit oleh pekebun kecil di Malaysia mewakili 40 peratus daripada keluasan keseluruhan tanaman sawit.  Maka setiap pekebun kecil sawit adalah diharapkan dapat meningkatkan produktiviti pengeluaran mereka.  Malahan kerajaan turut menetapkan sasaran peningkatan pendapatan pekebun kecil kelapa sawit kepada sekurang-kurangnya RM4,000.00 sebulan menjelang tahun 2020.  Untuk itu, program integrasi sawit telah diperkenalkan oleh Lembaga Minyak Sawit Malaysia (MPOB) dalam Rancangan Malaysia Ke-Sembilan (RMK9) sebagai pemangkin kepada sasaran meningkatkan pendapatan para pekebun.  Program integrasi sawit adalah amalan yang mengintegrasikan tanaman sawit bersama aktiviti ekonomi lain, sama ada tanaman atau ternakan, atau kedua-duanya.  Persoalannya, sejauhmana amalan integrasi sawit ini benar-benar efektif dalam meningkatkan pendapatan pekebun kecil sawit.  Justeru, objektif utama perbincangan adalah menganalisis sejauhmana amalan integrasi sawit berjaya meningkatkan pendapatan pekebun kecil sawit.  Seramai 140 orang pekebun yang mengusahakan integrasi sawit dianalisis dalam perbincangan ini.  Statistik deskriptif dan ujian Pearson Chi-square digunakan bagi menjawab objektif perbincangan.  Hasil kajian  menunjukkan sebahagian besar pekebun kecil sawit melakukan amalan integrasi tanaman berbanding integrasi ternakan.  Sebahagian besar pekebun bersetuju dan sangat bersetuju bahawa integrasi sawit dapat meningkatkan pendapatan mereka.  Walau bagaimanapun, terdapat sebahagian pekebun kurang setuju bahawa integrasi sawit dapat meningkatkan pendapatan mereka.  Dapatan ini perlu diberikan perhatian dan perlu diselidiki lebih mendalam bagi mengenalpsati punca-punca yang menyebabkan integrasi sawit gagal meningkatkan pendapatan sebahagian pekebun kecil sawit yang dikaji.

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In Malaysia oil palm plantation by the smallholders represent 40 per cent of the total oil palm plantation areas. Therefore, each oil palm smallholder is expected to increase their productivity.  In fact, the Government has also set a target to increase the oil palm smallholders’ income to at least RM4,000.00 per month by the year 2020. To this end, the oil palm integration programme was introduced by the Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB) in the Ninth Malaysia Plan (9MP) as a catalyst in targeting the increase of the smallholders' income. The oil palm integration programme is a practice of integrating oil palm with economic activities such as crops or livestock, or both. The question is, how best and how effective is the oil palm integration practice in increasing the oil palm smallholders’ income. Therefore, the main objective of the discussions is to analyze on how best is the oil palm integration practices able to increase the oil palm smallholders' income. A total of 140 smallholders cultivating the oil palm integration were analyzed in this discussion.  Descriptive statistics and Pearson Chi-square test were used to answer the discussion's objective. The study results showed that a significant number of oil palm smallholders do practice the integration of crops against the integration of livestock.  Majority of the farmers agree and strongly agreed that the oil palm integration is able to increase their income. However, there were some smallholders who disagree that oil palm integration is able to increase their income. These findings need to be given attention and examined in-depth to identify the causes of the oil palm integration failure in increasing the income of some of the oil palm smallholders studied.