Authors : Assis Kamu, Bonaventure Boniface, Abdul Rahim Awang, Affendy Hassan, Mohammad Amizi Ayob and Siti Kalsom Yulo
Abstract: This cross-sectional survey study has focused on the statistical techniques using factor analysis in identifying the attitude of oil palm smallholders towards Ganoderma disease. Comparison test was done to determine the relationship between smallholder’s socio-economic characteristics and their attitude towards the disease. The data were collected through face-to-face interview by using structured questionnaire. A total of 620 oil palm smallholders have been interviewed during the data collection. The data collected was analyzed by using descriptive analysis, factor analysis and non-parametric techniques using Mann-Whitney U test and Kruskal-Wallis test. The findings show that there were two main components of attitude, namely difficult to manage ganoderma disease and difficult to get information and lack of exposure. Comparison test using non-parametric tests show there were no significant differences across the categories of the selected socio-economic characteristics except experience in oil palm cultivation and category of smallholders. But all of the respondents did not agree with both components except the respondents who are categorized as independent smallholders.
Assis Kamu, Bonaventure Boniface, Abdul Rahim Awang, Affendy Hassan, Mohammad Amizi Ayob and Siti Kalsom Yulo, 2017. Relationship between Attitude Oil Palm Smallholders Towards Ganoderma Disease and their Socio-Economic Characteristics. Journal of Engineering and Applied Sciences, 12: 4334-4337.