Planning for sustainable rural development in Malaysia has entered a phase where rural areas are no longer tied merely to food production as an economic activity. The increasing demand for rural amenities, ecosystem services and preservation of cultural landscapes generates the idea of a much diverse option for an alleviation of the local economy. Due to the variation of local actors, resources, and activities, sustainable rural planning requires the understanding of the complex development processes occurring in its territories. The rural web is an analytical framework that can be used to understand the dynamic relationships between different domains of rural development. In this paper, the rural web is used as a tool to comprehensively analyze the economic performance of the village’s development and economic activity of rural areas in Johor. This paper discusses the study areas of six villages from six different rural areas surrounding the state of Johor. The finding shows that KampungParitPuteriMenangis has the highest economic performance while KampungPayaBesar was identified as the lowest economic performance compared to other villages. Market governance was identified as the major domain of the rural web in the twenty economic projects identified in six selected villages for this study.

The variation of rural Malaysian household groups is a result of their different socioeconomic backgrounds, as each household group tends to carry its own distinct economic potential. Therefore, in order to plan for the development of rural areas, it is essential to acknowledge the determinants that causes these economic variations to occur. This paper aims to assess the differentiation of rural households’ socioeconomic backgrounds in rural areas of Malaysia, and to highlight a review of relevant studies on 20 identified determinants for the differentiation of households' socioeconomic background according to five capitals (economic, social, human, cultural and environmental) as the fundamental framework in measuring household economic performance. Quantitative approach was used as a method to assess the variation of the determinants that causes the differentiation in socioeconomic backgrounds of household groups. Results from this study reveals the key findings on the levels of socioeconomic backgrounds based on six different household groups in Malaysia.

Agriculture is an important contributor of rural development. The rural area will benefit economically, socially, and environmentally if the approach of sustainability in agricultural activities is put into practise. This, in turn, will help to make rural development more sustainable in the long run. In a similar light, rural development strategies are also variables that can make it easier for sustainable practises to be implemented in a cost-effective and timely manner. Therefore, this paper aims to examine the significance of dimensions of sustainable rural development as assisting elements in farmer’s decision-making towards adopting Sustainable Agricultural Practices (SAP). Previous empirical studies were analysed for this purpose, and 50 studies conducted in various countries were evaluated in order to discover the main elements impacting the decisions to adopt SAP. The NVivo 12 software was used to code influencing factors gathered from previous studies into dimensions essential to sustainable development of rural area according to the Rural Web model. Findings of this research have found most of the influencing factors that affects farmer’s decision to adopt SAP came from the dimension with institutional elements. Meanwhile, novelty aspect was found to have the least factors recorded in previous studies, which has drawn attention to a gap in previous research. The association between farmers who use innovative methods and their decisions to embrace SAP should be explored further in future studies.

Agriculture is an integral part of the world’s economy and global food security, but excessive use of fertilizer and improper use of pesticides are harmful to the environment. This creates the importance of encouraging farmers to practice sustainable agriculture to decrease environmental impacts and conserve natural resources. Increasing the rate of adoption requires an understanding of the farmer’s process of transition from conventional to sustainable agriculture. Extension agents play an important role as they are trained to provide information towards the process of transition. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to explore barriers to the adoption of sustainable agriculture through the perspectives of extension agents that worked with farmers. This qualitative study is based on in-depth interviews with 20 extension agents from the agricultural department in Johor, gathered through purposive sampling. Three stages of deductive content analysis were used, consisting of preparation, organizing, and reporting phases. The process of coding was carried out using Nvivo software. Findings from this study highlighted barriers such as lack of knowledge of sustainable practices and insufficient labor have mainly hindered adoption. Approaches such as providing a platform for farmers to connect, learn, and share techniques of sustainable agriculture could help alleviate the barriers identified in the study.