In many areas of the developing world, rice is gaining popularity as a preferred source of caloric supply (IRRI, 1995; FAO, 1996) including Malaysia. Rice is a commodity that paramount importance in people uses every day. Rice, Oryza sativa L., belongs to the Poacea family. Rice is grown on the Malaysia Peninsular and on Borneo Island. About 300 500 hectares in Malaysia Peninsular and 190 000 hectares in Borneo Islands are devoted to rice production (FAO, 2002).
Being a security crop, the government encourages domestic production. However, the national average yield is low at just over 3.0 tons per hectare. Local production can only cater approximately 60-65 of domestic requirements. Hence, the shortfall is supplemented by imported rice. About 40% of annual imported rice is from Thailand. In 1999, Malaysia imported about 600 000 metric ton of rice from various countries (Consumer International, 2008). Malaysia has enhanced the production of rice in many ways to ensure food security and to meet the demand of population, but still there is many constraints involving rice industry.
Rice is categorized as strategic security commodity since it is the staple food for Malaysians. Malaysia rice production in 2008 is forecasted to increase from 2.3756 million tons in 2007 to 2.3841 million tons in 2008 (ASEAN Food security Information, 2008). Rice production thus far has satisfied the government policy of obtaining 60 percent self-sufficiency. The low income from rice production, however, needs to be improved. This could be obtained with the introduction of new crop management concept and practices that increase the productivity of rice production activities (FAO. 2002)
Rice pest are any organisms or microbes with the potential to reduce the yield or value of the rice crop (or of rice seeds) (Jahn et al., 2007). Rice pests include weeds, pathogens, insects, rodents, and birds. A variety of factors can contribute to pest outbreaks, including the overuse of pesticides and high rates of nitrogen fertilizer application.
Major rice pests include the brown planthopper (Preap et al., 2006), the rice gall midge (Jahn and Khiev 2004), the rice bug (Jahn et al., 2004), the rice leafroller (Murphy et al., 2006), rice weevils, stemborer, panicle rice mite, rats (Leung et al., 2002) and the weed Echinochloa crusgali (Pheng et al., 2001). At 2007, pests damage cost loses 1 148 hectare in Malaysia (ASEAN Food Security Information, 2008).
Major rice diseases include Rice Ragged Stunt, Sheath Blight and Tungro. Rice blast cause by the fungus Magnaporthe grisea, is the most significant disease affecting rice cultivation. In addition to causing direct damage to the plants, many rice insect pests also act as a vector of spiral disease of rice, such as Tungro virus (Dale, 1994; Thresh 1989).
In order to reduce the population of the pest, almost all of the farmers practice pest control. Most of them using pesticide as chemical control either other animals or predators as biological control. However, the pesticide residues can cause negative effect to the human health and also to the environment.
Pest control refers to the regulation or management of a species defined as a pest, usually because it is perceived to be detrimental to a person's health, the ecology or the economy. Pest control is at least as old as agriculture, as there has always been a need to keep crops free from pests. In order to maximize food production, it is advantageous to protect crops from competing species of plants, as well as from herbivores competing with humans.
The objectives of this study were: to study rice farmers attitude on pest control practices and (2) to find out the farmers' source of pest control practices information.
CHAPTER 2
Literature Review
2.1 Rice
The scientific name of rice is Oryza sativa, is a plant in Poacea family (USDA, 2006). Rice is the most important cereal crop in the developing world and is the staple food of over half of the world's population, grown over about 124 million hectares (Pathak, 1975) and produced in at least 95 countries (Coats, 2003). Classified primarily as a tropical and sub-tropical crop, it is grown in over 100 countries today, on every continent except Antarctica, extending from 50-53°N to 40°S and from sea level to an altitude of 3000 meters (Juliano, 1993; Pathak & Khan, 1994).
Rice is grown either by direct sowing - broadcast, drilled or by transplanting and under diverse water regimes: as an upland crop where is no standing water and rains are the sole source of moisture, or under lowland conditions whereby water, derived from the rain or irrigation system, is impounded in the fields. On slopes, it is cultivated in terraces, and in valleys, or low-laying sites, floating rice may be grown in several feet of prolonged sunshine. The optimum temperature is about 30°C but, particularly during the flowering stage, temperature of about 20°C induce sterility (Pathak, 1975)
Cultivated rice is a semi-aquatic annual grass, although in the tropics it can survive as perennial, producing new tillers from nodes after harvest (rotton rice). A mature rice has a main stem and several tillers (or side branches), each productive tillers bearing a terminal flowering head or panicle. Plant height varies with the variety and environmental conditions, ranging from around 0.4 m to more than 5 m in deepwater rice varieties. Roots of the rice plant develop from nodes. There are two major types of roots. Crown roots (including mat roots) developed below the soil surface. Roots that developed from nodes above the soil surface are usually referred as nodal roots. Rice can grow to 1-1.8 m tall, occasionally more depending on the variety and soil fertility. The grass has long, slender leaves 50-100 cm long and 2-2.5 cm broad. The small wind-pollinated flowers are produced in a branched arching to pendulous inflorescence 30-50 cm long. The edible seed is a grain (caryopsis) 5-12 mm long and 2-3 mm thick.
The growth period of the rice plants is three to six months (90 to 180 days), depending on the variety and the environment in which it is grown (IRRI, 2003a). The growth duration can be divided into many stages, but the most basic division is into three phases: the vegetative phase, reproductive phase, and ripening phase (Tanaka, 1965). The vegetative phase begins with germination and ends at panicle initiation, when the plant begins to partition assimilate to developing panicle. During the reproductive phase, the panicle forms within the least sheath, is exserted, and undergoes anthesis (flowering). The ripening or grain-filling phases begins after anthesis and ends at maturation (Karen & Julia, 2003)
Thus, although rice is grown under diverse cultural conditions and over a wide geographical range, it is essentially a crop of warm, humid environments conducive to the survival and proliferation of insects. Of the more than 70 species recorded as pests of rice, about 20 have major significance. They infests all parts of the plant at all growth stages, vectors of virus disease, and are a major factors responsible for low rice yields particularly in tropical Asia (Pathak, 1975).
2.2 Rice in Malaysia
Rice area accounts for about 11 percent of the total agricultural lands in Malaysia. Rice remains as the country's most important crop in terms of cultivation, being the principal staple food for most of the populace. To maintain rice production and sufficiency, the government has designated eight granary areas as the permanent rice-producing areas in the country. These designated areas, of various sizes and productivity, include the Muda Agriculture Development Authority (MADA), Kemubu Agriculture Development Authority (KADA), Barat Laut Selangor, Besut, Krian/Sg.Manik, Endau/Rompin, Seberang Prai, Seberang Perak and Kemasin/Semerak (Tan, 1987).
These areas currently cover only 36 percent of the total physical paddy land located mainly in Peninsular Malaysia, their combined area constitutes 57 percent of the total land area planted to rice and their combined production amounts to 72 percent of the total national rice production. These granary areas were officially designated based on their being the traditionally most important rice-producing regions in the country. All areas are located in Peninsular Malaysia.
These eight major granary areas have been reserved solely for rice cultivation where new rice varieties and new technologies from research and development efforts can be adopted. The other rice areas excluded from the eight are free to choose what alternative crops to plant every season (Tunku Mahmud, 2006).
The designation of specific rice granary areas is an astute policy to protect the interest of the dwindling, but politically important, rice-producing Malay-dominated segment of the rural population within the overall context of national economic policies that thrust towards industrial crop production. As the priority areas for rice production supplying the needs of the rest of Malaysia, government programs, support and interventions in the rice sector are focused in these eight designated regions.
2.3 Definition of Pest Control
Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) is designed to assure that the foods are produced under hygienic conditions, and that microbiological, chemical and physical hazards were prevented (Gardner, 1999; Sheridan, 2000). Establishing procedures for pest control is an important component of GMPs. Pests are harmful organisms and can cost the food industry billions of dollars each year (Marriott, 1991). The pests of primary concern are insects and rodents and they are responsible to spread disease through foods. Rodents and insects carry pathogenic bacteria both internally and on their bodies (FAO, 1997).
Pest control is the process of minimizing or removing a wide range of undesirable insects and other pests from spaces occupied by people. Most of the control tactics that are commonly used today can be grouped into two broad categories, natural controls and artificial controls. By definition, a natural control may be any environmental factor that keeps a pest population below its economic injury level. Artificial controls, on the other hand, employ products or processes of human origin to modify a pest's distribution, behaviour or physiology.
2.3.1 Chemical control
Chemical control tactics involve a wide variety of substances that cause direct mortality (toxicants), disrupt developmental processes (growth regulators), prevent reproduction (sterilants), or modify insect behaviour (semi chemicals).
The most common method of chemical pest control is the use of pesticides. Pesticides are often classified according to the pest they are intended to control. For example, insecticides are used to control insects, herbicides to control plants, fungicides to control fungi, rodenticides to control rodents, avicides to control birds and bactericide to control bacteria.
2.3.2 Biological control
Biological control is the introduction of natural enemies to a new locale where they did not originate or do not occur naturally. Biological Control also defined as the reduction of pest populations by natural enemies and typically involves an active human role. Natural enemies, also known as biological control agents, include predators, parasitoids, pathogens, viruses, fungi, and bacteria.
Biological control is frequently incorporated into integrated pest management (IPM) programs. Integrated pest management (IPM) is an integrated approach of crop management to solve ecological problems when applied in agriculture. These methods are performed in three stages: prevention, observation, and intervention. It is an ecological approach with a main goal of significantly reducing or eliminating the use of pesticides while at the same time managing pest populations at an acceptable level. The major objective of IPM is to control pests economically through environmentally sound techniques (Marriott, 1994).
2.3.3 Cultural control
Cultural or ecological control involves purposeful manipulation of the environment to make it less habitable for pest species. Any change in the spatial distribution of host plants (crop rotation, intercropping, or trap cropping), variations in the time of planting or harvesting, application of water and fertilizer, and management of ground cover and/or surrounding vegetation may have a significant effect on the survival and growth of pest populations. Simplicity and low cost are the primary advantages of cultural control tactics.
2.4 Integrated pest management in Malaysia
Integrated pest management (IPM) was first introduced into Malaysia in 1960s to combat the surging problem of pest resistance and resurgence in the seventies but the implementation of integrated pest management (IPM) principles and practices in Malaysia was gradual yet continual process. Integrated pest management (IPM) was introduced in rubber (Rao, 1969), cocoa (Wood, 1971), oil palm (Wood, 1971), rice (Lim, 1970; Jusoh rt al.., 1980) andcoconut (Ho et al.., 1971).
The use of barn owl, Tyto alba (Scopoli) as a predator of rat, Rattus argentiventer in paddy field has been found to be a very successful biological control agent in Malaysia. Another alternative to control weedy rice and weeds are by using duck. Ducks are very effective because they will scooping up the grains and seeds of weeds. Duck also can be used to control the population of the golden apple snails in paddy area (Othman and Palasubramaniam, 2001). Further with the extracts from the duck can be used as organic fertilizer.
The use of biological control agent in paddy field has proven to be a success method. By using biological control agent, farmers can reduce their cost of production because less herbicide is needed in the early stage.
CHAPTER 3
Methodology
3.1 Location
To achieve the objective of this study, a survey was conducted to gather the information about rice farmers' attitudes on pest control practices in Kelantan and Terengganu. This study was carried out at Kemubu Agriculture Development Authority (KADA), Kelantan and Integrated Agriculture Development Area (IADA KETARA), Besut, Terengganu. KADA covers 5 irrigation plans for 5 separate territories, namely Kota Bharu, Bachok, Pasir Puteh, Pasir Mas and Tumpat. While IADA KETARA consist of four block of irrigation areas.
Kemubu Agriculture Development Authority (KADA) was estabalished in 1967. It covers 49 929 hectares of paddy area with 38 415 farmers. The current status of the net production in 2008 is 179 048 metric ton.
Integrated Agriculture Development Area (IADA KETARA) was estabalish in 1992. It consist of 9 846 hectares of paddy area with 2 759 farmers. The net production in 2008 is 46 097 metric ton.
3.2 Data Sources
3.2.1 Data Collection
Since there are many research techniques so, there are many methods of data collection. The common methods for data collection are personnel interviews, telephone interviews and self-administrated interviews.
For this study, the data was obtained by conducting the survey using questionnaire and interview with Agriculture Officer. The survey was conducted during the semester break. The total number of farmers involve in this study was 200 respondent from Besut, Terengganu and Pasir Puteh, Kelantan. Interview was also conducted from Department of Agriculture in the district to find out the extension source on pest control practices for farmers.
3.2.2 Questionnaire Design
Relevance and accuracy are two basic criteria to achieve the research's purpose. Hence, a good questionnaire is needed so that the interviewer can get quick, accurate and reliable answers from the respondents. Therefore the questionnaire has been design using simple and direct way to avoid complexity as well as loaded question. This questionnaire was prepared in Malay. It was divided into 4 sections. Section A, Section B, Section C and Section D where it were about demographic profile and attitudes of respondent respectively.
3.3 Data Analysis
The data were analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS®) software. Descriptive analysis was used to analyze raw data from survey forms, and then transform into statistical data such as table, chart and histogram. Data from descriptive analysis was used to see the value in term of percentage, mean and chart. The data were analyzed using Pearson's Chi-Square (X2) where appropriate.
