In Malaysia, the relative importance of agriculture has declined as a result of diversification and industrialization of the economy. The share of agriculture in GDP, employment, and exports has gradually declined and since 1984 the manufacturing sector has overtaken agriculture as the main engine of growth. Malaysia has recently declared its vision of
becoming a fully developed nation by the year 2020.
Realizing this vision involves a doubling of real GDP every 10 years over the next three decades and a balanced growth in all sectors of the economy. Within this context, accelerated efforts are needed to ensure a reasonably balanced rate of growth in agriculture in relation to other sectors of the economy.
The future performance of the Malaysian agriculture sector will continue to be influenced by the direction of the global economy and the national economy, as well as by the ability
to comprehend the issues and challenges facing the agriculture sector itself. Currently the major issues being highlighted are resource and environmental issues, concerns for food safety and personal health, sustainable development, trade policy and international agreements, and poverty. Among the challenges, that of technological advancement appears to be the most prominent. In the Malaysian context technological development must be
directed towards labor saving, land augmenting, and be environmentally friendly. With the shrinkage in land available for agriculture due to urbanization and industrialization,
greater competition across sectors for other resources including labor and capital, and greater concern for preserving the environment, and different strategies to enhance agricultural development are needed.
Agriculture in the highlands offers one of several alternatives which address these issues and could help to improve the overall performance of the sector. A large part of the
mountainous steep lands in Malaysia is kept under forest. However, in Peninsular Malaysia about 5000 ha of steep mountainous land in the Cameron Highlands (CH) have been
developed for tea, temperate vegetables, floriculture, and fruits. In East Malaysia, cocoa and pepper are planted on steep lands. Another landuse type in steep areas is shifting
cultivation, mainly found in East Malaysia. In Sarawak this amounts to about 2.7 million ha of which 0.1 million ha are cleared annually for the cultivation of hill rice and other food
crops. The other East Malaysian state, Sabah, is dominated by a landscape of hilly and steep land which accounts for over 60% of its total area. The vegetable growing area of Kundasang has a landscape characterized by steep slopes. Primary jungle is being replaced through clearing operations and vegetable production on steep land is gaining popularity.
The remaining portion of this introductory section focuses on the economics of Malaysian vegetables and the objectives of the study.
