The role of smallholder agriculture in the development of Sarawak: 1963-88

Abstract

Agriculture in Sarawak has always been predominantly a smallholder activity. Rice cultivation is exclusively undertaken by smallholders, as are coconut, sago and pepper cultivation. There were only ever five large rubber estates and most of these are now defunct; hence rubber, Cocoa has too, is almost entirely planted by smallholders (Table 1). been planted by estates and, more recently, by mini-estates, but currently 83 per cent of the cocoa area is in smallholdings and another 7 per cent in group smallholdings (Table 2). The only major crop which is not dominated by smallholders is oil palm. In this case estates account for 77 per cent of the planted area, group smallholdings 20 per cent and non-group smallholdings only 3 per cent (Table 3). With this exception then, agriculture's contribution to development in Sarawak over the past Whether 25 years has been made almost entirely by smallholders. smallholder agriculture can or should retain this dominant position in future development is an important policy issue which this paper seeks in part to address.