COMPLETIONREPORT

Food Security and Sustainability: Exploring the Malaysian and Japanese youth
participation in Agriculture.
Abdul Rahman Saili(+2)
Senior Lecturer(Head of Studies)
Faculty of Plantation and Agrotechnology
Universiti Teknologi Mara (UITM) Sarawak
Exploring the Malaysian and Japanese Youth participation in Agriculture
This project explored both Malaysian and Japanese Youth participation in agriculture. In Malaysia, thefinding of the research revealed that majority of the participants claimed that they involved in agriculture
to primarily earn their living and also to fulfill their passion towards agriculture. Another emerging theme
include family support which had been providing them better understanding of their roles andresponsibility while family coaching helped them to significantly improve their knowledge throughexperiences, attitudes and skills. Most participants agreed that they have to work hard in order to get adesirable income or target from their agriculture activities. Therefore, economics factor in term of good
income generation is another pivotal factor for them to strive for the best.
In Japan, all participants shared that their main reason to be involved in agriculture is to sustain theirlivelihood and also something that they are passionate about. The family support and the socioeconomic
factors also play important roles as ways to earn income and support their family. Another factor such as
family tradition and working environment gave significant impact for them to be in the industry. If thecurrent youth farmers can prove themselves to be successful in the agricultural industry, more youth will
be attracted to participate and dwell in the industry.
However there are barriers and challenges faced by the participants in Malaysia and Japan. They haveto deal with high production and operating cost such as expensive machinery and technologies. The
participants also claimed that they are vulnerable in dealing with natural risk such as flood, typhoon,
climate change, diseases and pest, something which are beyond their control. Based on the finding above,it can be asserted that psychological factor also plays a pivotal role to sustain the involvement of youth
farmers in agricultural environment. In this context, farmer’s motivation was induced by both internal
factor; passion, family tradition and socioeconomic and external factor; family support, working
environment and through mentoring and coaching. All participants highlighted that these small factors
affecting the way they perceive, think or behave toward agricultural sector hence, making them to enticein agricultural business environment. The finding would become an instrument to map a comparison
between those who are, or interested to involve in agriculture with those who are not in the industry whileproviding government and private sectors a glimpse of ideas to formulate an action plan to engage theseyouths to get involves in agriculture. There are some resolutions as follows:
1. Agricultural extension programs should expose the successful youth agropreneurs as success stories
to attract and strengthen the confidence of youth to engage in the industry.
2. The extension officers/educator should be trained with social skills on how to influence and persuadepeople, in addition to technical knowledge on how to attract more youth using technology in cordialenvironment.
3. The government should emphasize more on formulating the development policies and financial
credit facilities which are in favor for youth farmers located in rural areas.
4. Youth should equip themselves with adequate knowledge by participating in any available
agricultural development program to create awareness as well as improving their agricultural production.

Publication of the Results of Research Project:
Verbal Presentation (Date, Venue, Name of Conference, Title of Presentation, Presenter, etc.)
None

Thesis (Name of Journal and its Date, Title and Author of Thesis, etc.)
Journal : Food Research
Date: 20 Dec 2020
Title : Food security and sustainability: exploring Japanese youth participation in agriculture
Author : Abdul Rahman Saili, Jamayah Saili, Ahmad Shahir Abdul Aziz, Mohammad Zulfikar
Kamil and Nur Nabila Huda
Journal : Food Research
Date: 20 Dec 2020
Title : Exploring the challenges of pepper smallholder farmers in Sarawak: a qualitative study
Author : Mohd Najmi Mazlan, Abdul Rahman Saili, Jamayah Saili, Farah Zulkefli, Syahrizan
Syahlan and Nur Aziera Ruslan
Book (Publisher and Date of the Book, Title and Author of the Book, etc.)
None