PUTRAJAYA: The nation’s agricultural sector employed about 1.74 million people in 2023, with the crops subsector remaining the country’s largest source of agricultural jobs, says Chief Statistician Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin.
He said crops accounted for 76.3% of total agricultural employment, stressing the sector’s critical role in sustaining household incomes.
“Overall, agriculture generated RM186.43bil in income in 2023. The crops subsector led with RM132.06bil, or 70.8% of total sector income, while livestock contributed RM33.12bil, followed by marine capture fisheries at RM11.08bil, forestry and logging at RM5.42bil and aquaculture at RM4.74bil,” he said at the online launch of the 2024 Agricultural Census Report here yesterday.
Mohd Uzir said the census, conducted by the Statistics Department (DOSM) from July 7 to Oct 31, 2024, introduced new parameters covering income, expenditure, salaries and wages for the 2023 reference year.
The elaborate exercise involved strategic collaboration with 1,390 agriculture-related agencies at the federal, state and district levels.
The census recorded 1.03 million agricultural holdings, of which 97.9% were operated by individuals and the remainder by organisations.
“Growth in agricultural holdings and activities was driven by strong food demand, global climate change and wider adoption of modern technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT) and smart farming, which have also attracted more young people to the sector,” he said, Bernama reported.
Malaysia has about 7.5 million hectares of agricultural land, dominated by oil palm plantations covering 5.8 million hectares, followed by rubber (0.7 million hectares) and padi (0.5 million hectares).
In terms of sales value, crops accounted for RM116.7bil, livestock (RM26.9bil) and marine capture fisheries (RM10.9bil).
Crop income was led by oil palm at RM92.68bil, followed by fruits (RM14.15bil), vegetables (RM10.90bil), rubber (RM4.27bil), rice (RM3.84bil) and pineapple (RM2.33bil).
Within livestock, chicken and duck farming generated the highest income at RM20.83bil, followed by egg production (RM5.54bil) and pig farming (RM2.55bil).
Mohd Uzir said Johor recorded the highest total agricultural income at RM30.15bil, followed by Sarawak (RM29.18bil) and Sabah (RM28.22bil).
For the crops subsector, Pahang, Sarawak and Sabah were the top contributors, generating RM24.05bil, RM23.58bil and RM23.43bil, respectively.
Total agricultural expenditure stood at RM67.89bil, with crops accounting for the largest share at RM41.53bil.
The expenditure-to-income ratio of 0.36 indicates that about one-third of sector income was spent on operating costs.
In terms of employment, Sarawak recorded the highest number of agricultural workers at 358,803, followed by Sabah (281,116), Johor (210,575), Perak (194,316) and Pahang (193,216).