This study aimed to estimate the technical efficiency among pepper (Piper nigrum. L) farmers in Sarawak, Malaysia, using Stochastic Frontier Analysis (SFA). SFA involves a one-step process that can estimate technical inefficacy factors simultaneously with the production frontier. 678 pepper farmers were involved in this study, and the data were collected from 2012 to 2013. The mean score for technical efficiency was 0.518, indicating that pepper farmers were not efficient. However, the inefficiency model showed that education level, membership in farmers’ association, full-time as a pepper farmer, attending courses and visiting sample farms were factors that significantly improved inefficiency. The major problem of pepper farming in Sarawak is poor agricultural practices where farmers do not fully utilize the available agricultural inputs to produce maximum output. Based on the findings, farmers must improve their knowledge and skills in pepper farming through agronomic education.

BackgroundThe objective of this study was to identify the magnitude of various risk behaviours related to Hepatitis B (HepB) and to characterize the relationship between socio-demographic determinants and these risk factors among adults in Malaysia.MethodsWe conducted a cross-sectional study in nine districts in the state of Selangor in 2016. A two-stage cluster sampling design was used and adults aged 20 years or above who were living in the selected living quarters were interviewed face-to-face. A multivariable linear regression model analysed the association between sociodemographic predictors and eleven outcomes (different HepB risk behaviours).ResultsA total of 728 respondents were included in the final analysis. Sharing nail cutters, body-piercing, and alcohol use were the most prevalent risk behaviours among respondents. Males, married couples, adult respondents (between 27 and 40 years old), and individuals with low educational attainment were more likely to be exposed to HepB risk behaviours.ConclusionHepB risk behaviours are relatively high among Malaysians and particularly among certain groups. Therefore, specific programs such as forums, seminars and continuous education on preventive measures for HepB should be tailored to these groups. These programs could be conducted by government authorities such as the Ministry of Women, Family and Community of Malaysia.

Hepatitis B (HB) is an upcoming health issue in Malaysia. Even though the Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI) for HB vaccination implemented by the Malaysia government in 1989, individuals born before 1989 were not covered under the EPI and should immunised against the HB virus. Examining the Malaysians’ perception of vaccination is very important in order to determine their behaviour regarding HB vaccination. Most of the studies only gave priority to analysing this issue from an occupational risk perspective, consumers’ perceptions of the HB vaccination are still lacking. This study is aimed at assessing the validity and reliability of the Malay version of the perception questionnaire used for Malaysian households. A pilot study involving 300 respondents was conducted in six districts in the Selangor area. Factor analysis constructed four components: perceived sustainability, perceived severity, perceived benefit and perceived barriers loaded on the corresponding component with factor loading of more than 0.5. Principal component analysis of the finalised 13 items explained the instrument of the variance, which was 59.7% in total, 20.3%, 14.5%, 12.5% and 12.4% explained by the four constructs. The Cronbach alpha for the items instruments is 0.5 to 0.8 which shows that moderate internal consistency exists and demonstrates reliability of the questionnaire. The frequency of the four constructs shows that most of the respondents worry about getting infected with HBV, the perceived severity level is high among respondents, they perceived benefit from getting an HB vaccination and perceived low barriers to getting the HB vaccination.

Food consumption in Malaysia has shifted away from starchy staples example rice to move towards wheat and livestock products, seafood, fruits and vegetables when increasing in income. The main objective of this paper is to outline the framework to analyse the elasticities of demand of food in Peninsular Malaysia. This study is adopting cross-sectional household data from the Household Expenditure Survey (HES), conducted by the Department of Statistics, Malaysia. Generally, the expenditure elasticites for most of the all food groups are positive and less than one (0 < epsilon < 1), except for cereal, fish, milk, vegetable and beverage indicating that food groups are normal and necessary goods, and there are no inferior foods. The uncompensated own-price elasticities for most of the selected food groups are much lower than the total income elasticities. The largest absolute value of uncompensated own-price elasticity is the other food commodity group (-1.117). This implies that demand reacts elastically to changes in prices of other groups commodities while the lowest elasticities is sugar (-0.480) where demand reacts least to price changes.

This study examines the trend of paddy production and allocation of land for between 2014 and 2030 based on polynomial function. In order to gauge the time variance effect on sustainable land allocation for paddy production, short-term and long-term scenarios were used in estimating future paddy production and average yield. This study finds that with successive increases in the intensity of the long-term paddy productivity, the land required for paddy plantation in the future will be diminished. Additionally, the average yield per hectare explains the difference between long-term and short-term projection and emphasises the crucial need for improvement in research and development (R&D) and discovering alternative measures for domestic paddy production. Therefore, due to its increasing population, Malaysia has to ensure an efficient allocation of land for development and paddy plantation to cater to both current and future needs.

Effects of locally isolated plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) and rhizobial inoculations on growth and yield of local Malaysian rice variety MR219 experiments were conducted in glasshouse. The treatments consisted of three PGPR (UPMB10, UPMB19 and UPMB20) and two rhizobial (UPMR30 and UPMR31) inoculations, each with three levels of nitrogen fertilizer (0. 33, 100% of recommended rate), laid in CRD. Results showed that bacterial inoculations significantly improved rice growth and yield parameters, particularly when supplied with minimal N rate (33). Bacterial inoculations increased chlorophyll content at 43 and 67 days after planting (DAP). Similar trend for tiller numbers (except inoculation with UPMB20) at 43 DAP. UPMB10 significantly increased filled spikelet percentage (87.33) and UPMB19 produced highest straw dry weight (114.34 g/plant), spikelet weight (107 g/plant) and biological yield (220.11 g/plant) with minimal fertilizer-N. The positive effects of bacterial inoculations appeared to be due to N-2-fixing ability. solubilize phosphate and potassium, produce IAA siderophore, cellulase and pectinase. Thus. locally isolated indigenous PGPR and rhizobial strains have the potential for using as liquid biofertilizer to increase growth and yield of rice-minimizing N-fertilizer use.

Rice paddies production in Malaysia, as in other parts of the world, is extremely vulnerable to weather changes and extreme conditions such as drought and flooding. Such situations forced Malaysia to maintain a protectionist regime with respect to its rice industry to better ensure food security for the country. In this study, a crop simulation model (DSSAT) and system dynamics approach were used to assess the impact of climate change on future rice production, self-sufficiency level of rice, and farmers' gross income in Malaysia. Results from the DSSAT model show that during the main and off growing seasons, increase in temperature and changes rainfall pattern can be expected to reduce the rice yield by 12 and 31.3%, respectively, until the year 2030. Based on the system dynamics' results, the reduction in rice yield was expected to reduce farmers' gross income and the rice self-sufficiency level of the country. The study suggested two different policy scenarios to overcome these adverse effects. The overall policy implication is that the Malaysian rice industry cannot be sustained if government takes no action to change its current policies.

This paper examines the relationship between the prices of oil and food price for Indonesia using Nonlinear Autoregressive distributed lag (NARDL) method. The bound test for co-integration for the NARDL model shows the evidence of co-integration between food price, growth rate of GDP and oil price. The estimated NARDL for the oil price in domestic currency provides strong evidence of long and short run co-integration between food and oil price when the latter increases while the relations for oil price reduction is not present and insignificant. The estimators of positive change in oil price model measured in US Dollar are significant in our study.

The main objective of present study is to evaluate private vehicle commuters’ knowledge and concern about health and environmental impact of transportation related air pollution in Klang Valley, Malaysia. Data were collected using structured questionnaire and interviewing 450 car commuters in five main areas of Klang Valley. The Results indicated that majority of respondents (58%) have knowledge about deteriorating effect of transport on society’s health and welfare. While, only 36% of them were concern about the transport related environmental problems. This study suggest that government intervention through increasing toll, parking fee and introducing congestion fee together with providing more efficient public transport can reduce more than half of travels by car.

In Malaysia, transportation accounts for almost 70% of carbon monoxide emissions. This study sought to discover whether intelligently changing policies for the private and public transport sectors can affect mode choice of private car owners in the Kiang Valley, Malaysia. Results of a random parameter logit model identified the most significant parameters affecting respondents' utility measures. These were introducing a congestion fee in private transport mode; and also access, comfort and the frequency of the available public transport. Respondents' marginal value estimates showed that they are willing to pay up to 175% of their hourly wage to have a more frequent and more accessible public transport. Moreover, the value of travel time showed that persons with longer commute time by car and bus are willing to pay more to save travel time. This is estimated about 25-50% of hourly wage of respondents. Simulation of results indicate that introducing the congestion fee has the largest impact both in modal shift and in reducing the number of cars used in the Kiang Valley area. Overall results of this study suggested that any government intervention through innovative transport policy implementation such as pricing and providing more efficient public transport could result in 70% modal shift among current car users to public transport. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The condition of water supply provided to consumers is an important element which influences their health and daily routine. Excellent water services will give consumer’s confidence to consume the water but poor services may endanger the households in many aspects and may tarnish the water company’s reputation. Low water price may limit the water services improvement and upgrading projects. The objective of this study is to estimate household’s willingness to pay using stated preference technique, the Choice Experiment (CE). This technique is employed to assess consumer’s preferences in water service attributes such as water quality (QUAL), water disruption (DIST), Non-Revenue Water (NRW) and water price (PRICE). The Mixed Logit (ML) was applied to derive the households’ marginal value for different attributes of the water services. The findings show that households are willing to contribute more on “water quality” attribute which derives the highest marginal value. The outcomes of this study will form the basis of policy recommendations to improve and enhance current domestic water services to a better level in the future.

This paper examines the relationship between the prices of oil and food price for Indonesia using Nonlinear Autoregressive distributed lag (NARDL) method. The bound test for co-integration for the NARDL model shows the evidence of co-integration between food price, growth rate of GDP and oil price. The estimated NARDL for the oil price in domestic currency provides strong evidence of long and short run co-integration between food and oil price when the latter increases while the relations for oil price reduction is not present and insignificant. The estimators of positive change in oil price model measured in US Dollar are significant in our study. Keywords: Oil price, Food price, NARDL, Indonesia JEL Classifications: B4; E3

Introduction: One of the largest proportions of human-related air pollution is produced by fossil-fuel based electricity generation units. Hence, the environmental performance that complies with technical performance receives increasing attention and seems to be the missing point in environmental impact analysis and energy policy studies. Therefore, empirical analysis which leads to increasing awareness of official policy makers concerning the technical and environmental trade-offs is the objective of the study in the electric generating sector by applying a two-stage Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). Materials and Methods: In the first stage the DEA incorporates Materials Balanced Principle (DEA-MBP) to estimate the allocation of gas, mazut and gas oil of steam plants to minimize inputs and SO2 emissions respectively with the given technology. It is then followed by applying Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) applied in the second stage investigate the other explanatory variables which may influence the efficiency and were not properly considered in the first stage analysis. Results: The results evident that there is considerable gap between technical and environmental efficiency (76% and 10% respectively) scores. The impact of most important explanatory variables in the second stage clearly demonstrates that plant sizes and fuel type have significant influence while plant age and the year of observation have no statistically significant influence on the technical and also environmental efficiencies of steam power plants. Conclusions: Advancement in interdisciplinary research helps to increase technical efficiency while reducing emissions by applying analytical methods, which may provide better information for decision making units. Hence, it is the management’s responsibility to improve efficiency by modifying regulation and competition performance in this respect.

Water service is a key factor in tidal lowland agriculture where water supply fluctuates following the tidal cycle. Under controlled situations, water can be properly supplied to farmland based on crop water requirements through proper operation and maintenance of the tidal irrigation system. This study aimed at estimating the value of water service in order to support the implementation of a water service fee. The benefit from water service is compared to a water service fee estimated from the cost of water distribution. To achieve the objective, the study employed production function estimation with rice as the main crop. Data were collected through a field survey on randomly selected farmers at Telang Delta, the rice production centre for tidal lowlands of South Sumatra, Indonesia. The result indicates that the value of water service in rice production is higher than any estimates of a water service fee. Proven to be a significant determinant of rice production, it has been suggested that water service should obtain financial support from farmers who benefited from available water service.

Rice is the second most important crop in the world after wheat, with Asia being the largest producer and consumer. The National Agrofood Policy of Malaysia, 2011-2012 (Dasar Agromakanan Negara, DAN) had highlighted that local rice production should be increased to ensure the country'sdemand in future. However, to what extend this ensures food security in Malaysia was not supported empirically so far. The objective of this study is to estimate the future need of rice industry in Malaysia based on past performances. Using polynomial curve on historical production, consumption, export and import values from 1963 to 2013, this study has projected the production and consumption value for the 19-year period between 2012 and 2030. The results had revealed an increasing demand for rice with declining supply can be only off-set by import of rice in future.

The increasing importance of environmental issues requires efforts in different area of research and application. Green Supply Chain Management (GSCM) offers great potentials for the improvement of ecological performance of manufacturers. The purpose of this paper is to explore the stakeholders' pressures on green supply chains, and to develop a taxonomy framework that can be used for green supply chain decision makers based on the characteristic dimensions for the green supply chain. The taxonomic framework is developed through (i) analysis of different dimension of green supply chain found in existing empirical work or case studies recorded in the literature, (ii) identification of key stakeholders' pressures that influence green supply chain management initiative. (C) 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.

The present paper uses error component model to elicit respondents preferences and willingness to pay (WTP) for wetland conservation. The main objective of this research was to estimate the difference between preferences and WTP of respondents who are users of wetland and those who consider as non-users. The results of structural equation modelling (SEM) and error component logit model (ECM) showed significant difference between WTP and attitudinal factors of two groups. The results of SEM indicated that respondents’ management concerns, income, and their employment status had positive and direct effect on their WTP. Results of ECM showed that user model is slightly better predictor of respondents’ choice. The non-market values of the wetland for users are estimated approximately US$ 3.67 per household per month meanwhile this value for nonusers was about US$ 2.80. The overall results indicated that familiarity and previous knowledge on wetland has significant effect on respondnets’ perception, attitudes and WTP. Results also showed that demand for better conservation and management of wetland is relatively price inelastic. This study conclude that improvement in Shadegan International Wetland management will bring higher utility for both users and nonusers society and hence will be supported by them.

Pollution concern has been established as an important predictor of economic value ascription related to solid waste service improvement, such as recycling. However, the variable is not directly observable and as such, its influence is captured by existing applied economics papers via "yes" or "no" discrete-nominal measure. Such measure assumes the variable has one dimension. This leads to loss of information, considering its multi-dimensional structure in theory. It thus implies that, if a respondent in an economic valuation study indicates a support for an improvement signified by a "yes" response to valuation question, a uni-dimensional dummy variable cannot tell what dimension of concern the respondent subscribes to. Despite this importance of understanding the variable's dimension, it has rarely been explored. This study investigates such dimensions and our findings support the existence of both the theoretically espoused dual and tripartite factor models. This implies a possible misspecification in existing solid waste related studies that have most often captured the variables via uni-dimensional nominal-discrete measure. (C) 2015 Published by Elsevier B.V.

A contingent valuation study was conducted to investigate the values of Shadegan International Wetland to the non-current users of this ecosystem. Structural equation modelling (SEM) was employed to model the effect of respondents attitudinal and sociodemographic characteristics on their willingness to pay (WTP). Results showed that respondents' concerns on wetland management, income and education had direct effect on their WTP. Results of non-parametric and binary logit models to estimate WTP showed that respondents were willing to donate US$2.75 and US$3.18 per household per month, respectively. Simulation of results for future scenarios showed that only if income increment would be more than price increase, the market share of better conservation scenarios of wetland will increase. Estimated benefit was compared with opportunity cost of the wetland for other land uses. The results concluded that regardless of enormous benefits of wetland in limitless time, the current benefit of preservation wetland is economically valuable.

This study attempts to find the best model to forecast international tourism demand using a series of key macroeconomic variables in ASEAN countries. Generally, we find that generalized Poisson regression model is the best one for estimating long-run international tourism demand. In addition, we find that inflation and real exchange rate have negative relationship with international tourism demand. On the other hand, foreign direct investment and openness of trade have positive relationship with international tourism demand. Cointegration test result shows that there is a long-run relationship between variables.