BUKU ABSTRAK - Universiti Putra Malaysia

Agriculture
Factors Affecting the Decision Making in Off Farm Employment among Paddy
Farmers in Kemasin Semerak Granary Area
Dr. Norsida Man
Faculty of Agriculture, University Putra Malaysia,
43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia.
+603-8946 7501; norupi@hotmail.com
Poverty is one of the most serious problems confronting paddy farmers worldwide, and Malaysia is not an
exception. Off farm employment is an alternative strategy and it has a potential to improve the income and wellbeing
of the paddy farmers. This study assessed the off-farm employment decision among 250 paddy farmers
in Kemasin Semerak granary area. In specific, the study attempted to determine the relationship between the
determinants of the off-farm and the off-farm participation decision. It was also undertaken to describe the
characteristics of respondents and their status in the off-farm employment. Furthermore, it examined the income
level of the farm households from the paddy farming and the off-farm employments as well as showed the
effects of the off-farm employment to the paddy farmers, using the descriptive analysis and logit regression
methods. The variables which were found to influence the likelihood of the paddy farmers to engage in the offfarm
employment included the farmers’ age and gender, the number of dependants, as well as other income and
farming types. From the study, it was evident that the farm size and education were not significant factors as no
significant association was observed between them and the off farm participation.
Keywords: Off-farm employment, paddy farmers, logit model, participation decision
Nitrate Assimilation and Vegetative Compatibility Groups of Fusarium proliferatum
and F. sacchari Isolated from Rice
Dr. Nur Ain Izzati Mohd. Zainudin
Nor Azliza Ismail, Nik Mohd. Izham Mohamed Nor, Azmi Abd. Razak, Siti Nordahliawate Mohamed Sidique
and Baharuddin Salleh
Faculty of Science, University Putra Malaysia,
43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia.
+603-8946 6642; izzati@science.upm.edu.my
Vegetative compatibility (VC) concept encompasses the ability of the two fungal hyphae to formed viable
heterokaryon and is therefore a useful tool to study the genetic diversity of fungal isolates, including Fusarium
species. Vegetatively compatible isolates from the same vegetative compatibility groups (VCGs) shared more
traits compared to those grouped in different VCG. Therefore, the purposes of this study were to generate
the nitrate non-utilising (nit) mutants and to investigate genetic diversity of two closely related species i.e. F.
proliferatum and F. sacchari, associated with rice plants showing typical bakanae symptoms, by classifying the
isolates into VCGs. A total of 539 nit mutants were obtained from 26 isolates when cultured on minimal medium
and potatoes dextrose agar amended with 2.5% KClO3 (MMC and PDC, respectively). Three phenotypic nit
mutant classes i.e. nit1, nit3 and NitM were identified. The frequency of the nit1 mutants recovered was higher on
MMC than those on PDC. For VCGs of F. proliferatum, the complementation test identified 8 VCGs among 13
isolates and the genetic diversity based on number of the VCGs per number of isolates was 0.62. However for F.
sacchari, the 13 isolates were grouped in 7 VCGs with the genetic diversity of 0.54. The isolates of both species
were genetically diverse based on multiple VCGs.
Keywords: Nitrate assimilation, vegetative compatibility groups, fusarium proliferatum, f. sacchari, rice
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