The Place of Cocoa and Coconut Cultivation in Family Plantations in Peninsular Malaysia

The Malaysian cocoa cultivation cycle was one of the fastest and shortest in history. Starting with a yield of less than 1,000 tonnes in the early 1960s, Malaysian cocoa output vaulted to a level of 200,000 to 220,000 tonnes between 1987 and 1993, before collapsing to a plateau of 30,000 tonnes in the 2000s. Cocoa was introduced on the west coast when coconut orchards were in full decline. In the core of the social organization of villages, coconut plantations were owned by ageing farmers who needed a fresh labour force to stay in their vicinity and harvest coconut trees. The diversification through a cocoa cycle serves this purpose, thanks to new inheritance and farm land tenure arrangements for the benefits of younger farmers, where other job opportunities were lacking. The cocoa cycle was initially supported by high prices in the seventies and a strong research and development policy. However, when cocoa trees were ageing and prices of the crop falling, the newest developments in the 2000s favoured oil palm cultivation.