Covid-19 and flooding: impact on ruminant production among Ladang Angkat farms UVH UPM

Kathiresan@Kannan, Meiyappan Raja (2022) Covid-19 and flooding: impact on ruminant production among Ladang Angkat farms UVH UPM. [Project Paper] (Submitted)

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Abstract

The Malaysian population of 32.7 million people requires a steady supply of agricultural products like meat and staple foods. In Malaysia, the livestock industry contributes one tenth (1/10 ) of the agriculture sector Gross Domestic Product (GDP) whereas the entire sector contributes 8.9% of national GDP as of 2015. Ruminant producers, of whom 56.3% are beef cattle farms, account for the biggest share of registered livestock farms in West Malaysia. Recently, ruminant farmers in the state of Selangor were affected by two major incidents which happened within a short duration of each other namely being COVID-19 pandemic which began in November 2019 and the flash floods in December 2021. The objectives of this study were to determine the impacts of COVID-19 and 2021 floods on ruminant productions in Ladang Angkat Farms UVH, UPM. A questionnaire based cross sectional survey study was conducted using face to face interviews, phone calls and online forms. 11 respondents from 11 out of 17 Ladang Angkat Farms participated and data were analyzed using qualitative descriptive analysis. The study showed that 10 out of the 11 respondents were affected by COVID-19 and two out of the 11 respondents were affected by the floods. Most of the farmers experienced substantial loss of revenue and sales (10 farms), trouble acquiring hired labour (8 farms), receiving veterinary care (8 farms) and acquiring feed for their livestock (5 farms). In addition, the farmers expected assistance from the government in the form of subsidies, particularly for animal feed, as well as guidance on how to run their farms after these major events. From this it can be concluded that there are negative impacts from the pandemic and the floods on ruminant farmers. Preliminary findings from this study suggest that further research involving economics, hired labour, feed stuff and veterinary services are greatly warranted. To secure the country’s food security, stakeholders involved in this industry need to be well equipped in facing future catastrophic events.

Item Type:	Project Paper
Faculty:	Faculty of Veterinary Medicine
Depositing User:	Ms Nurhaznita Mahmood
Date Deposited:	29 Feb 2024 07:57
Last Modified:	29 Feb 2024 07:57
URI:	http://psaspb.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/1653

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