Factors influencing the adoption of innovation in beef cattle farming: A study in Peninsular Malaysia

Abstract

Beef cattle plays a role as a protein source to the population of a country. However, the current demand for beef is greater than its supply making it a hot issue in food security. Moreover, the price of local beef per kilogram is higher than imported beef. The use of innovations such as artificial insemination, biosecurity and integration techniques is yet to be applied by beef cattle farmers although empirically proven to improve beef production. This situation has become more critical among beef producers in Malaysia. This study was conducted on 233 beef cattle farmers at four states of Peninsular Malaysia including Kedah, Kelantan, Selangor and Johor. Ordinal logistic regression was employed to analyse the influencing factors for adopting innovation in beef cattle farming. The result demonstrated that farmer-tofarmer extension, level of education, number of cattle, value of a business and access to information were statistically significant at 0.1, 0.01 and 0.05. However, age, experience and government extension showed an insignificant relationship with the adoption of innovation. Based on the findings, it can be concluded that farmers are still interested in adopting innovation; however, some limitations were found to drive them away from it. Hence, the collaboration among all parties is a must to ensure the success of this sector and achieve a self-sufficiency level for the Malaysian population.