Agroforestry Practices Contribution Towards Socioeconomics: A Case Study of Tawau Communities in Malaysia

Abstract

Agroforestry is a key indicator in terms of socioeconomic level towards developing countries especially to rural communities for sustainable development. Generally, agroforestry practices are valued environmentally, economically and socially. However, a key problem within recent literatures in relation to agroforestry practices is lack of awareness and knowledge among local community in rural areas. The aim of this study was to identify the contribution of agroforestry practices towards socioeconomics of communities in Merotai Besar, Tawau, Sabah, Malaysia. The data collection was conducted by questionnaire, which was randomly distributed to 250 respondents from five (5) villages namely Merotai Besar, Simpang Tiga, Kijang, Langsat and Iban. Majority of respondents strongly agreed that agroforestry practices could provide food resources for the wellbeing of rural communities. More than half of the communities in Merotai Besar area practiced agrisilvicultural system. A small number of residences in the study area also practiced agrosilvopastoral and silvopastoral systems. In spite of the fact that 93.2% of respondents were practicing agroforestry, they lack awareness that they were practicing agroforestry. This was due to poor dissemination of agroforestry information. This paper suggests that policy makers should encourage stakeholders to provide training and skills development centre to enhance the community's knowledge. Furthermore, it is necessary to encourage active community-based management practices within respective villages for sustainable economic development and to ensure prosperity for all. In conclusion, agroforestry practices can expand the socioeconomics level to reduce poverty of rural communities in Tawau area.

Productivity and economic evaluation of Willow (Salix alba L.) based silvopastoral agroforestry system in Kashmir valley

“…The earlier studies (Reddy and Korwar, 1985;Pathak, 1991;Yadav et al, 2019) on evaluation of comparative economics of silvopastoral agroforestry systems under dry land conditions used the similar methods and results were in consistent with the present findings of silvopastoral plantation. The results of this study provided circumstantial evidence in favour of adopting agroforestry over sole forestry (Ahmad et al, 2017;Musa et al, 2019).…”

“…(iv) cultural outcomes including maintenance of cultural heritage, recreation opportunities, preservation of spirituals, values, beliefs, customary rituals, habits, totems, festivals, taboos, folklore, traditional recipes etc. (Thomas 1990;Nair 1991;Swinkels and Scherr, 1991;Current et al, 1995;Blanc et al, 2019;Hanisch et al, 2019;Musa et al, 2019). These benefits of agroforestry add up to a substantial improvement of the economic and resource sustainability of agriculture (Islam et al, 2015;Yadav et al, 2019).…”

The potential of timber-agroforestry to meet Sarawak’s forestry demand

“…Agroforestry systems have shown to fulfil multiple objectives such as diversified income generation, food security, and delivery of other ecosystem services such as climate change mitigation, biodiversity enhancement and soil improvement [1][2][3]. In addition to direct income generation from selling crop and timber harvests, self-utilization of timber from the agroforestry system reduces the cost of building houses, boats and other structures.…”

“…Despite the significant financial contribution of timber, it remains underutilized since non-timber crops (fruits, rubber, vegetables etc.) are the main source of incomes in many agroforestry systems [1][2][3][4].…”

Effects of tree arrangements of silvopasture system on behaviour and performance of cattle – a systematic review

“…The type of agroforestry can be defined by its main agricultural components, such as tree-based systems combining trees and arable crops and silvopasture systems, which combine trees, livestock, and pasture in the same area (Burgess and Rosati, 2018). There is evidence of the success of agroforestry practices worldwide (Desmiwati et al, 2021;Musa et al, 2019;Varella et al, 2016). Overall, the silvopasture systems are considered benefic for animal welfare (Broom, 2017;Morales et al, 2017) and the environment (Lima et al, 2017), despite the significant variability of arrangements (e.g., design and spacing), species of trees and pasture used in these systems (Jose et al, 2019).…”