Perception of oil palm estate managers towards oil palm-cattle integration

The oil palm industry is a major contributor in the export of Malaysian agriculture. The National Agriculture
Policy (1992 – 2010) included beef production through integration as an important strategy to increase
national beef output and to achieve the self-sufficiency level. Therefore,the main objective of this study was to
investigate the perception of oil palm estate managers towards the integration between oil palm and cattle and
towards factors which causing the slow implementation of the integration in Malaysia.A survey method through
self-completion questionnaire was used in collecting the required data from the managers which consist of
managers, assistant managers, supervisors and also owners of the selected oil palm estates in Kelantan,
Malaysia. A total of 60 respondents were selected by using simple random sampling method and 15 of them
were managing the oil palm estate which implementing the oil palm-cattle integration. The data gathered was
analyzed by using descriptive and inferential statistics. Factor analysis revealed that there were two main
components of perception of the respondents on the oil palm-cattle integration. And factor analysis also
identified that there were two main factors that causing the slow implementation of the oil palm-cattle
integration based on the respondents’ perception which are internal factor and external factor. An independent
samples t-test showed that there was a significant different in the perception on the internal factor between the
respondents who managing the estate which implementing the oil palm-cattle integration and the respondents
who managing the estate which not implementing the integration. The study concludes that the government
needs to plan a good strategy in promoting the oil palm-cattle integration by taking into account all the internal
as well as external factors which could cause the slow implementation of the oil palm-cattle integration in
Malaysia