Humanities & Social Sciences Reviews eISSN: 2395-6518, Vol 8, No 4, 2020, pp 693-700 https://doi.org/10.18510/hssr.2020.8468 693 |https://giapjournals.com/hssr/index © Ahmad and Nasir THE PRACTICES AND FACTORS AFFECTING THE IMPLEMENTATION OF INTEGRATED CATTLE AND OIL PALM FARMING SYSTEM IN MALAYSIA Abd Rahman Ahmad 1* , Aini Syafiqah Mohd Nasir 2 1*,2 Faculty of Technology Management and Business, Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia, 86400 Batu Pahat, Johor, Malaysia. Email: 1* arahman@uthm.edu.my, 2 ainisyafiqah@gmail.com Article History: Received on 25 th July 2020, Revised on 16 th August 2020, Published on 29 th August 2020 Abstract Purpose of the study: The Malaysian government had encouraged the adoption of integrated cattle and oil palm farming systems (ICOFS) since the year 1998. This is due to large areas of land suitable for ICOFS in Malaysia that can be well utilized. The efforts made in increasing the demand for meat nationwide and growing dependency on imported meat are among the reasons that ICOFS has become significant to be implemented today. Apart from that, Malaysia needs to increase the self-sufficiency level of national meat production to 32.7% by 2020 as stated in the National Agri-Food Policy 2011-2020. Despite this, only a small number of farmers have adopted ICOFS in Malaysia and less is known so far about the farmer's attitudes towards the ICOFS in Malaysia. Methodology: Therefore, this study aimed to explore the current practice as well as factors affecting and constraints to the adoption of ICOFS in Malaysia. Interviews of four selected experts in ICOFS were held to examine the current practice of ICOFS in Malaysia. Main Findings: Results from the interviews and literature review have been cross-compared to develop questionnaire instruments. Then, the survey questionnaire was carried out to 153 adopters and non-adopters of ICOFS in Johor, Malaysia to identify the key factors that influence the adoption of ICOFS. Applications of this study: The study found that information and know-how and availability of skilled labor are the significant factors that encourage farmers to adopt ICOFS. On the other hand, government support and policy constraint and production and on-farm constraint are the significant constraints hindering the adoption of ICOFS. Novelty/Originality of this study: Based on the findings of this study, one of the measures to increase the rate of adoption of ICOFS is by helping the farmers to hire extra labor and to have skills needed. Furthermore, the rate of ICOFS could also be increased by helping the farmers to have better control over weed, pests, and diseases on the farm as well as not interrupting their oil palm production. In addition, it is suggested to provide them with more opportunities for incentives, training, and technical support from the field officers. It is suggested for future research to explore the effect of factors affecting adoption and constraints to adoption on other attitudinal and psychological outcomes such as satisfaction, success, involvement, and degree of use. Keywords: Integrated Cattle, Oil Palm, Farmers, Farming System, Agricultural, Malaysia. INTRODUCTION ICOFS is one of the strategies that is seen promising to boost up the local beef production and to increase the self- sufficiency level of the Malaysian local beef (Gabdo & Abdlatif, 2013 ). This farming system is a method of farming in which the grazing animals are reared simultaneously on land used for crop production (Awalludin et al., 2015 ; Ismail & Abdul Wahab, 2014 ; Tohiran et al., 2019 ). This concept is developed to reduce dependency on pasture land. It is suitable for Malaysia's environment as this country has a limited area allocated for pasture production and livestock grazing Romelah, & Niswati, 2017 ; Tohiran et al., 2017 ; Salendu et al., 2018 ). Integrated cattle and oil palm farming system (ICOFS) is not only a solution for the limited availability of grazing land but also the answer for the lack of local meat supply in Malaysia. Besides, it maximizes the use of available resources of land and capital, thus reducing the cost in production. In Malaysia, ICOFS is considered as the most successful and sustainable integrated farming system in Malaysia that could help to boost up Malaysian beef industry in comparison to other cattle-crop integrations such as rubber and coconut trees (Ismail & Abdul Wahab, 2014 ; Sharif & Mohamed, 2005 ; Nur, Fadli, & Satriawan, 2018 ). This is mainly because of the huge area of land were planted with oil palm trees in Malaysia. Thus, this study was focused particularly on the adoption of integrated cattle and oil palm farming systems. According to Gabdo and Abdlatif (2013) and Tohiran et al., (2017), cattle integration in oil palm estate could increase the return for both enterprises: cattle farming and oil palm production. This farming system can reduce the maintenance cost of oil palm estate, especially in weeding and increase its. This paper aims to contribute knowledge of integrated cattle and oil palm farming systems in Malaysia. To answer the research with the objective to identify the current practice of an integrated farming system of cattle and oil palm in Malaysia. Here, this will then further explore the current practice of ICOFS in Malaysia and further investigate the factors affecting the adoption and constraints to the adoption and their effects on ICOFS adoption. The findings are not