RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SOCIOECONOMIC FACTORS, INCOME AND PRODUCTIVITY OF FARMERS: A CASE STUDY ON PINEAPPLE FARMERS

Pineapple which is scientifically known as Ananas comosus and locally recognized as nanas is one of the well-known tropical fruits besides banana, mango and papaya. This unique fruit is being cultivated extensively in many parts of the world including Malaysia and commonly consumed fresh or in processed form. In Malaysia, the related agencies had been implementing various development activities to uplift the pineapple industry in the country. These included in activities to help the small-scale pineapple farmers in improving their income level. Socioeconomic characteristics of farmers have been proven to give significant impacts on their income and productivity. Thus, this study was conducted to determine the relationship between socioeconomic factors, income and productivity of pineapple farmers in Samarahan, Sarawak. The survey was conducted from July to August 2012 with total of 55 respondents using structured questionnaire as the research instrument. Both descriptive statistics and inferential statistics were involved in this study. Factor analysis was used to identify the main factors affecting the productivity of the respondents based on 21 Likert-scaled items used in this study. The factor analysis revealed that there were two factors affecting their productivity which are input and awareness factor and farm background factor. Logistic regression analysis revealed that the land size factor or specifically, the total area of pineapple farming was the only factor identified having significant effect on the monthly income of pineapple farmers in Samarahan (B=.492, p