Akeem Olawale Olaniyi et al./ Elixir Agriculture 38 (2011) 4196-4204 4196 Introduction Malaysia is divided into three main regions: Peninsula Malaysia, Sabah and Sarawak. Fig1. The neighbouring countries are Thailand and Brunei on the north and Singapore and Indonesia on the South. Fig. 1 Geographical location of Malaysia in relation to her Asian neighbours Climatically, Malaysia, experiences heavy rainfall of about 2,540 to 5000mm per annum (Dale 1959; Andriesse l968). The average daily temperatures and relative humidity are 21 - 32°C and 85 percent respectively (Nieuwolt et al. 1982). Anon (1992) found that the topography of Peninsular Malaysia is characterized by the central mountain ranges running from north to south. Malaysian soils are acidic and highly weathered ultisols and oxisols (IBSRAM 1985) of characteristically low pH (3.0 - 4.5); low base saturation; low Nitrogen, Sulphur, Molybdenum and Boron, Copper and Zinc (Nieuwolt et al. 1982). Malaysia has a land area of 32.98 million ha with approximately 15.56 million ha (47 percent) of the land being arable. Of this arable land, Peninsula Malaysia has 8.10 million ha, Sarawak has 5.31 million ha while Sabah has 2.15 million ha (Figures 2a & 2b). Figure 2a: showing percentages of arable and non – arable lands in Malaysia Figure 2b: showing percentages of arable and non – arable lands in Malaysia Malaysian agricultural sector has contributed significantly to the economic development of the country. For instance before the country’s independence in 1957, it is the major source of Tele: E-mail addresses: aolibraheem2007@yahoo.com © 2011 Elixir All rights reserved Assessing the effects of socio – economic factors on agricultural land use in Malaysia Akeem Olawale Olaniyi 1 , Ahmad Makmom Abdullah 1 , Mohammad Firuz Ramli 1 and Alias Mohd Sood 2 1 Department of Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Environmental Studies, University Putra Malaysia. 43400, Serdang, Darul Eshan, Selangor, Malaysia 2 Department of Forest Production, Faculty of Forestry, University Putra Malaysia 43400, Serdang, Darul Eshan, Selangor, Malaysia. ABSTRACT A study is conducted to investigate the effects of socio economic factors on agricultural land use in Malaysia. Relevant socio – economic variables (from 1965 to 2007) were aggregated from the databases of various international and national agencies. These data include agricultural and non agricultural land uses, Gross Domestic Product (GDP) & Gross National Product (GNI); labour force, population age distribution, numbers of cars per 1000 people; road density. GDP/capita & GNI/capita, labour efficiencies ie (ha/worker in agricultural subsectors), percentage of male and female in the agricultural labour force and % change in outputs of major crops were derived from relevant data. Data were then subjected to multiple linear regression analysis using SPSS version 18. Findings indicated that, relevant socio – economic factors in agricultural land use in Malaysia are available workforce of the population, percentage of workers engaged in plantation farming, female workforce in agriculture, farm size and the workers condition of service in non - agricultural sector. This study has revealed that labour supply and their conditions of service are major factors in agricultural land use. This study further underscores the need for technology – driven - agricultural practices in the face of better posited industries competing for available labour. © 2011 Elixir All rights reserved. ARTICLE INFO Article history: Received: 3 July 2011; Received in revised form: 23 August 2011; Accepted: 28 August 2011; Keywords Gross Domestic Product (GDP), Gross National Income (GNI), Agricultural Land Use (ALU), Socio – Economic Factors (SEF). Elixir Agriculture 38 (2011) 4196-4204 Agriculture Available online at www.elixirpublishers.com (Elixir International Journal)