Rural agricultural extension programmes in Sarawak

Abstract

When we talk about rural agricultural extension programmes or for that matter, the agricultural sector in Sarawak, we cannot run away from the reality of the situations, namely:- (1) Out of an annual value of agricultural production of about $750 million, about 90% or $675 million are contributed by the smallholder sector. The agricultural export earnings from the main agricultural of pepper, cocoa, rubber and palm oil were about $462 million in 1988 of which pepper, cocoa and rubber were mainly produced by the smallholder farmers. (2) Sarawak has a total of 137,000 smallholder farm families which actually constitute almost 100% of all the farm families in Sarawak. They are located in some 4,748 villages scattered in rural and remote locations throughout Sarawak.