The impact of cash cropping on shifting cultivation in Sabah, Malaysia Jennifer Nyuk-Wo Lim and Ian Douglas Abstract: Pressure from the state government to abandon shifting cultivation and of the market to increase the production of cash crops are causing not simply a reduction in the practice of shifting cultivation in Sabah, Malaysia but marked alterations in the way many remote communities grow hill rice. Many traditional practices have been abandoned including the substitution of cash payments for community labour co-operation (gotong-royong), the use of traditional methods to monitor soil fertility such as maintaining fallow periods and the selection of appropriate hill rice varieties. The result has been a reduction in labour input, a shortage of land, continuous production, increased used of weedicides and a general failure to continue sustainable agricultural practices. Despite state incentives to abandon the practice the pressure to maintain real incomes among the rural communities has meant a continuation of the practice of shifting cultivation but under conditions which are now resulting in land degradation, slope instability and soil infertility. Keywords: Sabah, Malaysia, Borneo, shifting cultivation, land degradation, traditional practices, land use, cash cropping Shifting cultivators have always adapted their practices to the changing environmental and social situations around them. In Southeast Asia, as elsewhere, the once sustainable practices have become increasingly less so in the face of internal or external ressures. The internal pressures arise from the way increased population density gives rise to fragmentation of land holding and insufficient land for the rotation of fields with long fallow periods. External pressures arise from government interventions and participation in the market economy to earn cash for the family needs purchased outside the settlement. Asia Pacific Viewpoint, Vol. 39, No. 3, December 1998 ISSN: 1360-7456, pp315–326 ß Victoria University of Wellington, 1998. Published by Blackwell Publishers, 108 Cowley Road, Oxford, OX4 1JF, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA. Authors: Jennifer Nyuk-Wo Lim and Ian Douglas, School of Geography, University of Manchester, Manchester, M13 9PL, UK. E-mail: [email protected], [email protected]
Transcript
The impact of cash cropping on shiftingcultivation in Sabah, Malaysia
Jennifer Nyuk-Wo Lim and Ian Douglas
Abstract: Pressure from the state government to abandon shiftingcultivation and of the market to increase the production of cash cropsare causing not simply a reduction in the practice of shiftingcultivation in Sabah, Malaysia but marked alterations in the waymany remote communities grow hill rice. Many traditional practiceshave been abandoned including the substitution of cash payments forcommunity labour co-operation (gotong-royong), the use of traditionalmethods to monitor soil fertility such as maintaining fallow periodsand the selection of appropriate hill rice varieties. The result has beena reduction in labour input, a shortage of land, continuous production,increased used of weedicides and a general failure to continuesustainable agricultural practices. Despite state incentives to abandonthe practice the pressure to maintain real incomes among the ruralcommunities has meant a continuation of the practice of shiftingcultivation but under conditions which are now resulting in landdegradation, slope instability and soil infertility.
Keywords: Sabah, Malaysia, Borneo, shifting cultivation, landdegradation, traditional practices, land use, cash cropping
Shifting cultivators have always adapted their practices to the changingenvironmental and social situations around them. In Southeast Asia, aselsewhere, the once sustainable practices have become increasingly less so inthe face of internal or external ressures. The internal pressures arise from theway increased population density gives rise to fragmentation of land holdingand insufficient land for the rotation of fields with long fallow periods.External pressures arise from government interventions and participation in themarket economy to earn cash for the family needs purchased outside thesettlement.
Asia Pacific Viewpoint, Vol. 39, No. 3, December 1998ISSN: 1360-7456, pp315–326
ß Victoria University of Wellington, 1998. Published by Blackwell Publishers, 108 Cowley Road,Oxford, OX4 1JF, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA.
Authors: Jennifer Nyuk-Wo Lim and Ian Douglas, School of Geography, University ofManchester, Manchester, M13 9PL, UK. E-mail: [email protected],[email protected]
Post-independence cash crop introductions in Thailand (Ganganapan, 1997;Tantemsapya, 1997) and East Kalimantan (Lahjie, 1996) and throughout thehumid tropics have had profound impacts on traditional farmers (Chale´ard, 1996).For many such farmers, off-farm employment is also a major component offamily income (Jokisch, 1997; Schelhas, 1996). These changes related to externalinfluences may lead to problems of labour and land shortages, to which individualfarmers respond in differing ways. For example, a wide variety of income andlivelihood support strategies may be found in a single Peruvian Amazon village(Coomes and Barham, 1997). Off-farm and on-farm income strategies are mixedfrom year to year according to the needs of individuals. In Dagaceri, northernNigeria, this flexibility of income sources has helped to drive shifting cultivationout of existence (Adams and Mortimore, 1997). The analysis of these adjustmentsrequires detailed research on the microeconomic and geographical conditions(Coomes and Barham, 1997) which underlie the social relations associated withthese income strategies.
This paper aims to help fill the gap in micro-scale understanding of theresponse of shifting cultivators to change by examining how Dusun indigenoushill rice cultivators in Sabah have responded to their changing social andbiophysical environment since the end of the nineteenth century. Particularattention is given to six villages in the Moyog constituency on the westernflank of the Crocker Range of Sabah (Figure 1).
Figure 1. The study area and villages examined in the Crocker Range, Sabah
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GOVERNMENT POLICIES ENCOURAGING CASH CROPPING
The colonial measures (Cleary, 1992, 1996; Colony of North BorneoGovernment Printing Department, 1951) which tended to confine shiftingcultivation into hilly and remote areas of poor soils, putting pressure onpotentially unstable easily degraded terrain have been reflected in post-independence Malaysian policies aimed at ending shifting cultivation andencouraging permanent cash crop farming. The transition from food to cashcrop is evident especially where there is road access. Traditional shiftingcultivation is still being practised with barter trade among shiftingcultivators in pockets of inaccessible areas in Sabah such as in the Ranau,Kinabatangan-Sugut and Pensiangan districts (observation by Jennifer Lim,1991). The improvement and construction of rural roads and relocation ofmany villages to these roads in the 1970s further helped to tie shiftingcultivators more permanently to the market economy. Cash crop incomewas needed to pay for the children’s education and other familyrequirements. However, permanent crop expansion reduced the landavailable for shifting cultivation leading to more intensive use and reducedfallow periods, with many parcels being continually used for hill rice fortwo, three or even four years.
Involvement with other cash activities encouraged by the government ledsome farmers to cultivate hill rice only on the parcels of land closest to theirhouses. In roadside Kg. Tagudon (Figure 1) labour intensive commercialShiitake mushrooms have to be watered two or three times a day. Thusfarmers no longer work remote hill rice plots. The Kg. Tagudon headmansaid in 1996:
Before their involvement in mushroom farming, these farmers were fallowingtheir land for a period of 12 years. Then, they had the option of clearing landlocated far away across the Kalangan river from theirkampung(village). Butnow, they only concentrate on land located nearby and abandoned the land acrossthe river.
Hill rice fields around Kg. Tagudon are fallowed at best for four to fiveyears, but in some cases, the same fields are used for successive years. Theheadman believes that this leads to landsliding on the over-used steepslopes.
Government’s effort to commercialise the rural sector, particularly whereshifting cultivation is required to reduce household expenses and at the sametime cash cropping is carried out to obtain cash income, would further lead tounsustainable land use. Unless full transition to cash cropping is achieved,shifting cultivators will continue to face problems of land and labour shortage.It also leads to a bigger socio-economic gap between farmers. At present, thesuccess of some farmers, particularly the resource-rich (land and labour) andthose who have access to road and transportation, in cash cropping has widenedthe socio-economic divide within the village and among villages.
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THE STUDY AREA
The survey team interviewed 124 farmers1 aged between 20 years and 100years, with an average of six children, in six village territories orkampungs(Kgs.)in the upland Moyog constituency (Figure 1). The largest age group wasbetween 51 and 60 years.2
Together, the 115 landholders3 owned a total of 234 parcels of land locatedat different locations within thekampungs. Eighteen per cent owned only oneland parcel and they are found mainly in Kgs. Tagudon and Kibunut. Another35 per cent owned two land parcels and 63 per cent of these two-parcel landowners are from Kgs. Moyog, Kibunut, Notoruss and Moyog. Twenty-sevenper cent of the farmers owned three land parcels and among this group, 76 percent are found in Kgs. Babagon and Notoruss. The Kg. Tudan Ulu land ownerwho held six land parcels was coded into the four-parcel land owner category.Only 10 per cent of the land owners owned four parcels of land and five ofthem are from Kg. Tudan Ulu. The mean area of land owned is 6.1 ha but morethan 50 per cent the land holdings however are less than 6 ha. Most land heldby the one-parcel land owners (18 per cent) is less than 3 ha. Most of the 3-parcel (52 per cent) and 4-parcel (42 per cent) landowners own more than 9 haof land in total
Off-farm employment is an important income source for villages locatednear to the urban area and road access. About half of the population in Kg.Babagon and less than 25 per cent in the other villages are involved solely inthis economic activity and these are households of the younger generationwho live with their parents. Some spouses of farmers are also involved inoff-farm employment particularly in the government service as drivers orlabourers. For the families in Kgs. Babagon and Notoruss, this involvementof the husband is an indication of wealth and thus contributed to the changesin their land use. Hill rice cultivation is abandoned for less time and labourconsuming cash crops like pineapple, vegetables and tropical fruits. Landarea used for farming decreases as the wives remain as farmers. It wouldappear that they continue farming to fill up their time and to earn extra cash.On the other hand, such involvement of a spouse in off-farm employmentcreates the case of labour shortage and land degradation as is the case in Kg.Tagudon.
IMPACTS OF POLICY AND ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGES ONTHE SHIFTING CULTIVATION PRACTICES IN THE MOYOGCONSTITUENCY
The resources (land and labour) demanded with the involvement of shiftingcultivators in cash cropping resulted in several changes to the cultivationpractices. The significant changes are the decline in the use of traditionalindicators in field site selection, payment in cash instead of in kind for the useof community co-operation for land clearance, shortened fallow period andintensive use of the land for hill rice cultivation, increased use of weedicide
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and selection of hill rice varieties. These activities will be examined in detail inthe context of interviews and discussions with 75 Dusun shifting hill ricecultivators who are also involved in cash cropping in the survey.
Indicators of field site selection
The farmer either suggests to his wife, or decides with her, a suitable area andthen they agree on which part of that area to clear. The choice of a field isbased on an assessment of soil fertility which draws on the collectiveknowledge passed on from generation to generation. Among the indicators ofsoil fertility considered are the time the area has been fallowed, the presence ofparticular plants, the sighting of specific types of birds or animals, the size ofthe regenerated trees, the greenness of vegetation and the depth of the humusand litter layers.
Steep slopes were often avoided. The headman of Kg. Kibunut said: ‘Theywere told not to clear land with steepness of more than 35�.’ However, due tolack of land of less than 35� by the early 1970s, shifting cultivators werealready working slopes of up to 40� in the Tuaran and Penampang close toMoyog (Burrough and Jamin, 1972).
Only a few farmers who still fallow their land for several years continue toconsider such omens as the presence of a particular bird or animal and thedepth of the litter layer important when selecting their fields (Table 1). To seeor hear a particular bird or animal indicates a change in fortune or personalluck to the Dusun and Murut shifting cultivators (Rutter, 1922; Tregonning,1960; Williams, 1965). If a particular bird is seen or heard while looking for asite to clear, this indicates the field will bring a bountiful harvest and goodfortune to the family. Taken together, such signs indicate that the land is‘ready’ for hill rice farming. Ninety-five per cent of the farmers considered treesize important and 71 per cent also took account of the length of the fallow
Table 1. Signs observed in hill rice field site selection, 1996
Signs observed in Kg. Kg. Kg. Kg. Kg. Kg. Total (%)hill rice field Tudan Babagon Notoruss Kibunut Tagudon Moyogsite selection Ulu
period when selecting sites for hill rice cultivation. While before 1970, farmersconsidered regrowth trees of 45 cm girth or more as indicators of sufficient soilfertility for hill rice (ibid.), today secondary regrowth trees of 15 cm in girthare cleared, the farmers finding that above that size, ‘The tree trunk becomestoo hard to cut. The task of cutting or felling becomes very difficult as onerequires more strength and energy’. Half of the more traditional Kg. Tudan Ulufarmers also examine the thickness of the top soil (at least 8 cm), but only threedid so in other villages.
Farmers also look formata air, water seepages or springs in stream-headhollows. Such seepages should be avoided, according to traditional practices,as clearance around them may lead to soil slumping or landsliding. Vegetationremoval is also thought likely to lead to contamination and/or depletion offuture water supplies. As insolation is important to obtain maximum sunlightfor photosynthesis, many hill rice fields are located on mountain sides facingthe sun.
Community co-operation in land clearance
Clearance of the vegetation is done either with all available family labour or bygotong-royong, the traditional community practice of farmers exchanginglabour in the same quantity and food. However, this traditional exchange inkind has been replaced in Kgs. Babagon, Notoruss, Kibunut and Moyog by acash payment system which disadvantages cash-poor households. Such poorerhouseholds have to spend more of their time on the labour intensive clearingwith only family members to help. A similar decline ingotong-royongwasnoted in the lowland Kg. Serusup, 16 km from the town of Tuaran (Zulkifly,1983).
The traditional system is preferred in the Kg. Rugarding settlement within Kg.Notoruss, not because of cash shortage, but because through working together,the farmers felt more united. Probably, this sentiment, not expressed elsewhere,arises because most of the households in Kg. Rugarding are inter-related.
Table 2. The newgotong-royongcash repayment system bykampung, 1996
Kampung Cash/fees Cash paid per Cash paid by No. of No. of groupspaid per non partici- non-member hours work inkampungactivity pation in an for using per day(RM)1 activity (RM) group to carry
1 RM = Ringgit Malaysia. As of July 1998, £1 = RM6.25.2 In this case, RM10.00 per person is paid, instead of a lump sum to the group.
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The new gotong-royongsystem has created formal groups of 10 to 12farmers. The amount of cash received and used by each group varies accordingto village and group (Table 2). That received in Kg. Moyog is used by thegroup to buy tools such as machetes, chainsaws and grass cutters or to pay formedicines for group members. In Kg. Notoruss, the money is either donated tothe church or shared among members of the group, while in Kg. Kibunut it iskept in the bank and individual members can only borrow some of it if they areprepared to pay a 10 per cent interest.
If gotong-royongis used, the owner of the field and the members will agreeon a date to clear the land. The number of persons and amount of time requiredto complete the task of land clearance depend on the method employed, thefallow period or the density of vegetation and the size of the field. Before theadvent of chainsaw, a typicalgotong-royonggroup of 10 to 20 members wouldclear a short fallowed (five years) 1.6 ha field in one day, while a similar fieldwith denser vegetation would take two days to clear. Chainsaws have madeland clearance less onerous, requiring fewer people and less time to completethe task.
Sowing with dibble stick orta’asokand selection of hill rice varieties
One of the traditional practices of shifting cultivation that has beencontinuously upheld to be environmental friendly is the use of a dibble stickin hill rice seed sowing. Traditionally, dibbling started only after the morningobservation of the Pleiades stars had reached about a 70� elevation above thehorizon (Williams, 1965). Five to six seeds are sown in a 3 cm in diameter holemade with the pointed end of the dibble stick. Holes are spaced about 15 cmapart. Contrary to the past whereta’asokwas done by the men with the womenputting the seeds in the holes (Burrough and Jamin, 1972), today dibbling andsowing are done by both sexes. The job differentiation was probablyabandoned through shortage of household labour. In Kgs. Babagon, Notoruss,Kibunut and Moyog,ta’asok is carried out only after the soil has been wettedby a rainstorm. Under this practice, there is no preparatory tillage to break upthe soil structure.
In the past, cut grass was laid over the newly planted field as compost andcover against the hot sun. When the rice shoots had grown about 2.5 cm inheight, the grass cover was gathered and burnt (Williams, 1965). This practicehas been abandoned in present day shifting cultivation, presumably also due tolabour shortage as farmers are too busy with such other activities as cash crops.
The skill of selecting the appropriate variety of hill rice for sowing is alsopassed on from one generation of hill rice farmers to the next. The varietychosen is based on its ability to withstand the cold and wet climate or to growin warm and hot weather, high disease/bug resistance, ability to grow on lessfertile soil, length of maturing period, colour and aroma. The variety of hill riceselected in Moyog differs according to the geographical location of the villageand weather conditions. For example, thepokukut variety requires warmweather to thrive, which explains its absence in the highest villages of the
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Crocker Range. In these villages, the varieties that thrive in cold weather(tadong, poronggot, kusui, pasirand bungkaras) are grown. Thebandarvariety, found only in Kg. Moyog, is similar to thepokukutvariety as it is lesssusceptible to bug attack and grows well in warm weather. In Kg. Tagudon,gawaahand/orrahumwhich take a longer time to mature are selected if earlyplanting has to be carried out.
The number of varieties cultivated also reflects a household’s socio-economic circumstances. Farmers who depend on the rice harvested in order tofeed their families often plant more than one variety as an insurance against a‘bad year’ or low yield. Such a risk aversion strategy is employed to select thevarieties for sowing by farmers in Kgs. Moyog, Tagudon and Tudan Ulu, thepoorest of the six villages in the study area. In Kg. Moyog, three hill ricevarieties (namelyrahum, worikandbandar) are planted every year while sixcommonly planted varieties in the cooler and higher altitude villages aregawaah, silau, rahum, worik, dihangkangand nonpoluon(in Kgs. Tagudon)andworik, poronggot, kusui, pasir, bungkarasandtadong(in Kg. Tudan Ulu).Except forrahumandgawaah, the rest of the varieties are highly susceptible todisease or bug attack. However in the other villages where cash cropping is aprominent feature, this skill of selecting the appropriate varieties has beenabandoned as only one variety (pokukut) is planted. This is probably becausefarmers could use their cash crop income to buy rice if yields were low.
In Kgs. Moyog, Tagudon and Tudan Ulu, hill rice varieties are chosen bothin terms of a balance between high yielding and the aromatic and colouredvarieties and soil conditions and planting time. Before taste and colourpreferences, however, high pest and disease resistant varieties are alwaysselected. The aromatic varieties areworik, gawaah, rahum, bungkarasandtadongwhile only rayaponand tadongare coloured varieties (red).
Fallowing
Fallowing of the land is the most crucial stage of the shifting cultivation cycleas a reasonable fallow not only ensures the recovery of the soil fertility but isalso a way to control weed infestation, pest and disease and erosion (Youngand Wright, 1978). A short fallow period invariably means a breakdown in theshifting cultivation system where the land is not able to sustain a healthy cropgrowth with competition from weeds for available plant nutrients. The fallowperiod basically supports the whole shifting cultivation process. Short fallowmeans more time spent weeding and the need for cash to purchase weedicide.Weedicide has tended to replace this labour intensive work, substituting cashfor labour and saving time, allowing farmers to concentrate on their cashcrop(s) or other activities. All the hill rice farmers in the study area reportedproblems of weed invasion and the emergence of various types of ‘new’ weedsin their fields such asrumput Malaysia(Eupatorium odoratum) which growson very poor soil.
According to Williams (1965), the resting period of the land was 20 yearsamongst the shifting cultivators in Kg. Sensuron, 20 km from Kg. Tudan Ulu.
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Prior to this, it would seem that these farmers were practising a nomadic typeof shifting cultivation rather than a cyclic one. As Rutter (1922) reported,‘[These farmers] clear and plant a fresh block of virgin jungle for every cropuntil all the surrounding suitable land of his village had been used . . . By thistime, his abode needed repair, so he abandoned it and made for new country afew miles away’.
The length of the fallow period is affected by the location and availability ofland for hill rice farming in the village and also whether the land has been usedfor other crops after hill rice harvesting. The fallow period in a remote villagelike Kg. Tudan Ulu, which is not facing population pressure, has remainedbetween 10 and 20 years. In villages short of land, it has been reduced; in Kg.Moyog to six to 10 years, nine years in Kg. Kibunut and four to five years inKg. Tagudon. Fallow is not practised in Kgs. Notoruss and Babagon as the landis continuously used for permanent cash cropping.
The type of crop planted after harvesting hill rice determines how the land isused and the fallow period. For example, onions, the most important cash cropin Kg. Tudan Ulu, occupy the land for at least six months. In Kg. Kibunut, onefarmer re-used the hill rice land to plant tapioca which occupies the land whileproducing food for two or more years. In Kgs. Babagon and Notoruss, somehill rice land is occupied permanently by pineapple. Thus, the continuous useof the hill rice fields for other crops – either supplementary food or cash crops– inevitably reduces the fallow period of the land.
Farmers in the study area were asked to recall the lengths of the fallowperiod operating in 1989, 1992 and 1995. As it generally takes five years forthe nutrients in soils of land cleared for shifting cultivation to recover (Furtado,1979), the length of the fallow was considered in single years up to five years,but in five year groups thereafter. Only 28 farmers were able to recall thefallow period for the year 1989 and 57 and 45 farmers for 1992 and 1995respectively. Four farmers carried out shifting cultivation on governmentreserve land and therefore did not know the length of the fallow period. Theremaining farmers either could not recall what happened or did not clear landfor hill rice during the years specified. Over half of the farmers respondingfallowed their hill rice fields for more than five years from 1989 to 1996. Ofthe eight farmers who did not fallow any land in 1995, three of them had grownhill rice on the same land since 1989 and another two since 1992. The numberof farmers fallowing their land for three or four years decreased between 1992and 1995, possibly because some stopped cultivating hill rice and others ceasedto fallow their land.
CONCLUSIONS
In the mid-1990s, hill rice cultivation in Sabah is in full transition exhibiting,even within a confined area in the Crocker Range, almost the full range fromthe persistence of traditional practices to complete abandonment of hill riceand the total commitment to cash crop farming. The transition has been agradual process since changes to the system of shifting cultivation were
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initiated by the Land Ordinances 1909 and 1913 which confined the system toprivate lands. Loss of the long fallow is the most crucial change. Short fallowgives rise to low yields, weed infestations and land degradation.
As elsewhere in Southeast Asia (Hill, 1998) and in Sri Lanka (Yapa, 1998),cash cropping leads to less use of traditional indigenous rice cultivars andfewer varieties. The state is seen as the principal agent in the solution ofpoverty, but the policies applied often leave difficulties for the poorest people.The government in Sabah retains the view that shifting cultivation isdetrimental to the environment. Cash cropping is seen as the prime means toimprove the socio-economic conditions of rural farmers, along with theprovision of basic primary education and health care.
However, so long as poverty remains the core problem in the rural area, thechange from being self-sufficient to dependency on the market economy couldpotentially give rise to serious socio-economic ramifications andenvironmental degradation. Some farmers undoubtedly do well within themarket economy. A few pineapple farmers in Kg. Babagon own one or morefour-wheel drive vehicles and improved houses. These better-off farmers leadothers to convert their rubber and hill rice fields into pineapple land. The riskof a future over-supply of pineapples could result in some farmers returning totheir previous poverty level.
The practical outcome of these detailed studies in the Moyog constituency isthat change, or evolution, of land use and land management practices is gradualand spatially differentiated. No simple, single paradigm can accountadequately for the process involved. No simple care or remedial action canbe applied to the whole area. Alternative agroforestry methodologies likeSALT (Sloping Area Land Technology, developed by the Mindanao BaptistRural Life Centre in the Philippines) are not likely to overcome thedifferentiation due to access to markets, proximity to roads, family labourforce and family structure. Where relative poverty persists, and where contactwith main transport routes remains difficult, the traditional ways will continueto influence farmers. Thus the state has to see the whole changing character ofthe community in its ecological situation and to develop integrated, acceptablepolicies which retain the collective wisdom from the past as well as providingthe opportunities that come with modernisation.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Jennifer N.W. Lim is grateful for the support of an U.K. Overseas ResearchStudentship, a University of Manchester post-graduate award and fieldworkfunding from the International Federation for University Women, Switzerland(IFUW) for this project. She is grateful to the Institute for Development Studies(Sabah) and the Rural Development Corporation, Sabah for the use of officefacilities and field transportation. The study is a contribution to the overallHYDROGEOTROP programme of the University of Manchester in SoutheastAsia.
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NOTES
1 Of these, 75 are shifting hill rice cultivators who also grow cash crops while the remaining49 are entirely dependent upon cash crops.
2 The field work was carried out from March to October 1996 using three semi-structuredquestionnaires targeted at the Village Headmen, Heads of Household and the Wives ofHeads of Household (if the household was headed by a husband who was a farmer). Thefields being worked by the farmers were inspected using a check list of physical landdegradation and land use indicators. Jennifer Lim led the survey with three Dusun fieldassistants. Observations and informal discussions with individual farmers and with groupsof farmers took place in every village. Time allocation data were collected on the basis ofrecall as over 80 per cent of the farmers were illiterate or lacked formal education.Interviews were conducted in the Dusunic language, not in Bahasa Malaysia. Overall anaverage of 26 per cent of farming households in the study area were interviewed and 25 percent of the fields in use were inspected.
3 The nine landless farmers carried out their farming activities on land borrowed fromfriends and relatives and/or on government land or on reserves.
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