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4 Panel 1According to UNCTAD (2008), under the deagrarianizationprocess, people living in the rural areasincreasingly survive by relying on multiple activities,rather than simply farming. UNCTAD furthermentioned how this phenomenon has been occurringat an accelerating rate. Thus, even though agricultureremains the major employer in most least-developedcountries, the annual increase in the number of peopleseeking work outside agriculture is starting to exceedthe annual increase in the number of people seekingwork within agriculture, showing a major change vis-àvisthe conditions in the 1980s and 1990s.Livelihood represents human life. A livelihoodstructure consists of multifaceted dimensions, butmainly has two dimensions: the economic and thesocial structures. While the economic dimensionincludes all living environments, which make adifference in living standards, the social dimensioncovers the people’s satisfaction standard in livingenvironments. De-agrarianization is a process whichencompasses the transformation of people’s livelihoodfrom a more agricultural to a less agricultural one at theindividual or household levels. Therefore, deagrarianizationis a part of livelihood diversificationaffecting people’s lives under shifting environmentalconditions. Figure 1-1 illustrates two areas where farmhousehold income and the agricultural sector havechanged. The semi-circular arrows indicate thatlivelihood diversification is widespread and found inall locations, as well as across all farm sizes and rangesof income and wealth (Frank 2000). In the case ofMalaysia, the livelihood of farmers has become morediversified due to the additional off-farm income theycan earn in manufacturing factories. Main incomeearning opportunities have shifted from the on-farmsector to the off-farm sector with industrializationtaking place as a concomitant condition or reality.Figure 1. Summary of diversification issues.This study focuses on the main paddy granary areas,where paddy farmers typically hold a small parcel ofland. The objective of the study is to investigateincome structures in terms of on-farm and off-farmincomes in five paddy granary areas on the West andEast coasts. A survey was conducted in these five areasfrom 2010 to 2011 using a structured questionnaire.The specific objectives of this paper are as follows: (1)to clarify the income distribution among householdsin the main paddy granaries, (2) to measure inequalityof incomes among paddy farmer households, and (3)to examine the determinant factors influencinghousehold income in the paddy granaries located inboth coastal areas.The following methods were used in this study. First,income distribution at the farm household level in thefive areas was measured using the household income,which was divided into on-farm and off-farm incomes,as basis. Second, the focus was on computing incomedisparities among farm households using the Ginicoefficientin both coastal areas. This enabled theresearcher to understand the reality of the income gapand of the specific groups, which brought about awider gap in terms of household incomes. Third,determinants of household income in the five areaswere clarified using linear regression analysis.The Work of the 2010/2011 API Fellows