Challenges facing pepper industry in Malaysia in the 21st century

Abstract

Pepper is an important political cash crop mostly grown by the rural smallholder farmers in Sarawak. About 73,000 families mainly in the interiors of Sarawak almost exclusively carry out pepper cultivation as their sole income generator. After 50 years gaining independent in Malaysia, what is the stance of this group of so-called marginalised poor pepper farmers in which about 98% of them are from Sarawak? Have their standards of living improved by all the efforts carried out by our government particularly under the poverty eradication programs? This study is to identify challenges facing the pepper industry in Malaysia in the 21 st century today. At the end of the study, various feasible policy options had also been proposed to help pepper farmers in Malaysia to cultivate pepper in a more sustainable manner. This is crucial to achieve the target of wiping out poverty in Malaysia particularly among this marginalised pepper farmers by 2010.