Prospects for Increasing Commercial Mushroom Production in Malaysia: Challenges and Opportunities

The spatial structure of tourism plays a crucial role in regional development, as it not only improves resource utilization efficiency but also enhances regional competitiveness and development potential through spatial agglomeration effects. However, previous studies on tourism spatial structure tend to focus on a single perspective, leading to a lack of a thorough understanding of the tourism activity, thereby affecting the effectiveness of policies. Based on commonly used academic perspectives, this study uses ArcGIS spatial analysis to examine Shanxi Province’s tourism resource data from government supply and visitor demand dimensions. Results reveal that single-perspective analysis fails to fully capture the complexity of tourism spatial distribution, highlighting the need for a high-quality spatial structure. Thus, this study applies the theory of the ‘pole-axis’ to reconstruct the spatial structure of tourism in Shanxi Province. It also proposes the layout of ‘one pole, three axes, four districts, and seven centres.’ offering a theoretical foundation for optimizing Shanxi’s tourism spatial structure and strategic guidance for sustainable development. Moreover, it provides strategic guidance for developing high-quality tourism spatial structures in other regions.

Given the need to address the adverse environmental impacts of rice straw burning, enhancing straw-utilisation would seem to be a step in the right direction. One way to achieve this objective would be to develop viable straw entrepreneurs. This study evaluates the barriers and challenges facing the straw entrepreneurial development in Malaysia. A total of 44 entrepreneurs in the country’s rice bowl areas of MADA (n=24) and Sekinchan (n=20) were interviewed. The findings reveal five major problems that have been stagnating the Malaysian straw agribusiness, namely, lack of support from both authorities and the community, lack of research and access to technology facilities, low levels of skills and knowledge pertaining to straw industry, and lack of readily available venture capital. Other related challenges unveiled include uncertain entrepreneurial attitude, limited product markets, unreliable supply of raw straw, and the lack of skilled workers. To reverse the stagnation and rejuvenate its straw by-product agribusiness Malaysia would need to strengthen and integrate institutional support, to enlarge all round stakeholders’ involvement including that of the local community and the entrepreneurs themselves, and embark on fullscale product and market development. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2015.v6n4p523

Pengetahuan agropreneur terhadap potensi sisa substrat cendawan dan kaedah pengurusan lepas tuai tanaman cendawan (Agriprenuer’s knowledge on the potential of spent mushroom substrate and post-harvest management methods of mushroom cultivation)

Isu dan cabaran usahawan dalam industri penternakan lebah kelulut (Issues and challenges for entrepreneur in the stingless bee industry)

Cabaran projek tanaman cendawan sebagai asas transisi kerjaya keusahawanan agro kepada Murid Berkeperluan Khas Bermasalah Pembelajaran (Challenges in the mushroom project as a basis of career transition of agro-entrepreneurship for Special Needs Pupils with Learning Difficulties)