Geospatial application for the identification and monitoring of rubber smallholders in the Malaysian state of Negeri Sembilan

Abstract

Abstract. The Malaysian rubber industry, especially in the upstream sector, is much dependent on smallholders to produce latex or cup lumps. Identification and monitoring of rubber smallholders are essential tasks when it comes to the Malaysian rubber industry's sustainability. The authorised agencies who support the rubber smallholders can do better planning, arranging, and managing. This paper introduces a method of calculating the total number of smallholders as well as identifying the location of their planted rubber area. The scope of this study only focused on land owners as rubber smallholders in the selected study area of Negeri Sembilan. The land use map provided by the Department of Agriculture Malaysia gave information on distribution of rubber area in Malaysia, while the cadastral map from the Department of Survey and Mapping Malaysia was specifically used for identifying land owners of each rubber parcel or rubber lot. Both data were analyzed and processed with ArcGIS software to extract the information, and the results were then compared to the Malaysian Rubber Board smallholders database.