Empowering Vegetable Farmers through Skill Development to Tackle Post-COVID-19 Challenges: Insights from Partial Least Squares Modelling

Abstract

The post-COVID-19 era has posed significant challenges to farmers, particularly in ensuring food security and maintaining agricultural productivity. Farmers' readiness to navigate these challenges relies heavily on their skillsets. During the pandemic lockdowns, restricted movement led to financial losses and wastage of agricultural produce, including fruits and vegetables. This study explores the impact of key skills—technology, implementation, leadership, and decision-making skill—on the readiness of vegetable farmers in Peninsular Malaysia. Using structural equation modeling via the Partial Least Squares (PLS) technique, the research examines the relationship between these skills and farmers’ readiness. Data were collected through a structured questionnaire distributed to a randomly selected sample of vegetable farmers. The findings revealed that leadership and decision-making skills significantly influence readiness, with p-values of 0.032 and 0.000, respectively. These results underscore the importance of integrating leadership and decision-making skill development into extension programs. This study contributes to the design of targeted training and capacity-building initiatives to empower farmers in overcoming post-COVID-19 challenges and achieving sustainable agricultural progress.