ECONOMIC VULNERABILITY FACTOR ON SUSTAINABLE LIVELIHOOD OF URBAN FARMER IN KOTA BHARU KELANTAN, MALAYSIA

Brutland Commission Report 1987 emphasized the livelihood sustainability as one of the agenda towards sustainable development. Moreover, sustainable livelihood also has become one of the agenda to achieve the objective of... [ view full abstract ]

Brutland Commission Report 1987 emphasized the livelihood sustainability as one of the agenda towards sustainable development. Moreover, sustainable livelihood also has become one of the agenda to achieve the objective of Malaysia Vision 2020 by improving the public living standards and low-income communities. However, in a part of a community, there a many vulnerability factors that led to the deterioration in livelihood and social sustainability. This study was conducted to analyze four factor of economic vulnerability that affect the sustainability of urban farmers’ livelihood and in Kota Bharu Kelantan, Malaysia. The method of this study is based on a quantitative approach involving data collection and data analysis by Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA), Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) and Structured Equation Modelling (SEM). There are four latent constructs factor of vulnerability that is ineffective marketing channel factor, burdensome production costs factor, lack of loan facility factor and low production yield factor as exogenous variables. While the latent constructs of livelihood outcome is endogenous variables that develop the structured model of the study. The structured model of the study showed an excellent compatibility and all indices reached the target. As a result, fitness indices for the model are as follows: χ2 = 174.767; CMIN/df=1.398, all of Goodness of Fit Index (GFI), Normed Fit Indices (NFI), Tuckers-Lewis Index (TLI) and Comparative Fit Index (CFI) were higher than 0.9, and RMSEA<0.08. This study found that the ineffective of marketing channel aspect of urban agricultural production is the main factor of vulnerability that affects the respondent’s sustainability of livelihoods.