CLIMATIC CHANGE AND THE SOCIOECONOMIC

SUSTAINABILITY OF THE PADDY FARMERS IN

MALAYSIA

Malaysia is a South-eastern tropical country which borders with Singapore, Indonesia, Brunei, and Thailand. Malaysia tropical climate characteristic create optimal conditions for the production of fruits and vegetables. Malaysia is particularly strong in tree crop agriculture which is involves the processing and manufacturing of mainly rubber and palm oil and other also important, like cocoa, rice, coconuts or pepper. Nowadays, the agriculture in Malaysia is experiencing a diversification process, which includes the development of newer crops like oil palm, cocoa. Paddy is the most agricultural that take more care to grow.

The changing nature of climatic factors has different impacts on paddy agriculture based areas, periods and crops.

CLIMATE CHANGE AND AGRICULTURE

Agriculture practice and climate are directly related exerting mutually effect. In Malaysia, the climate change and agriculture practice are generally seen to have been connected one with other in a circular way. Climate change affects most significantly in agriculture out of the other economic sector because of its worldwide distribution and the strong linkage and dependence of the climate and the environmental factors.

Next, the effects of climate change on the agricultural production impact the socio-economical dimension at both the macro and micro-scale. Floods and

droughts are the most common processed directly affecting the relation between agricultural and climate change. The direct impacts to the agriculture can be decreasing of the agricultural productivity, increasing of the food insecurity and affection of the supply chain caused by the sea level rise.

Focus on the socioeconomic sustainability of the farmers under the rapid climatic changes in Malaysia, this article obtained partial data from a research project of Integrated Agricultural Development Area (IADA), North-West Selangor, Malaysia. As the agricultural productivity varies due to climatic change, the income of the farmer also declines and as a consequence, poverty increases. The unexpected behaviour of climatic factors also causes many negative impacts on human health that affect more on the farming community. Climatic change is also directly connected to incidences of diarrhea, skin disease, malaria, kala-azar, dengue fever, and other illnesses.

Overall, climatic change influences the agricultural sustainability negatively in Malaysia; as a consequence people who are dependent on agriculture are more vulnerable in terms of socioeconomic perspective than other social groups in Malaysia. Adaptation is very essential in the long run for agricultural and livelihood sustainability in Malaysia.