Entrepreneurial training is one of the key elements that address poverty among the B40 (i.e., the lower-income group) in Malaysia. However, the results of accomplishing the introduced training program have not been proven empirically. This study aims to examine the effectiveness of agropreneur training in sustainable agropreneurship involvement in Malaysia. The four-level Kirkpatrick model and the self-regulation theory have been adopted in this study. A total of 200 respondents participated in a survey a year after the implementation of the program. The respondents perceived that the training program has been a success. The results showed a strong relationship between certain measures of reaction and learning regarding the respondents’ behaviour. More importantly, training has led to significant behavioural changes, which contributed to people’s continuous involvement in agropreneurship. The results have also shown that effective entrepreneurship training has created a significant, positive impact on rural agropreneur sustainability among the participants.

Training in the agricultural sector has been set as a continuing government agenda to educate people in rural areas. This study aims to identify several determinants that play a key role in developing sustainable agropreneurs in the Bottom 40 (B40) group in Perak, Malaysia. To this end, data were collected from 200 participants in the Agropreneur Community Training Program (ACTP). A quantitative research method was used for describing and analysing the collected data. The results showed that an internal factor, which was the agropreneurs’ attitudes towards behaviour, displayed a significant positive relationship with the expansion of the farm. As for the external factors, the results showed that family support and social networking have a significant positive relationship with increased income. Moreover, the results revealed that subjective norms exhibited a significant negative relationship with increasing income. Accordingly, more representative samples are required to verify the results of the postulated relationships between the internal and external factors of becoming a sustainable agropreneur in rural areas. The agricultural sector has become a pressing global concern, with issues such as natural disasters, wars, and climate change. Thus, the results of this study provide several theoretical and practical insights for government agencies, especially in developing countries, to execute more viable training programs for agropreneurs.

The economy of rural communities is commonly associated with agriculture. Hence, many farming initiatives are organised by government agencies to enhance the socioeconomic status of rural communities, wherein raising the income and standard of living in the Bottom 40 group (B40) is the primary objective of most programmes. This paper presents a robust framework based on the entrepreneurship training courses called the Agropreneurship Community Training Programme (ACTP) conducted by the Northern Corridor Implementation Authority (NCIA) and Yayasan Kemajuan Sosial Malaysia (YKSM). The study assessed the effectiveness of ACTP based on the four-level training model initiated by Kirkpatrick (1959), which is composed of reaction, learning, behaviour and result. The assessment involved 200 participants in Bagan Serai, Perak. A four-level training framework model was developed based on the categorisation derived from factor analysis. A higher mean value for each assessment level and increments to the respondent’s income indicated the effectiveness of the programme. Evidently, the model appears to be suitable for assessing rural agropreneur training, and future work may apply a similar model in the design and delivery of entrepreneurship curriculums.

Kampung Luat situated in Lenggong Valley, Perak, is a well-known tourist destination due to its natural attraction, archaeological elements, promotion of rural agroindustry and home-based products, as well as unwavering and strong local community commitment. Distinct local characteristics, such as traditional culture, agricultural setup, countryside landscape, and simple lifestyles, offer a different experience for its visitors. The combination of these aspects provides a huge opportunity for tourism heritage trail development. As such, this study discusses the development of a heritage trail in Kampung Luat. The initiative was taken by a group of USM researchers, along with the cooperation from the local community. Observation and focus group discussion (FGD) techniques were adopted in this study. Several meetings were conducted and the development of Kampung Luat heritage trail was proposed, which covered seven stops in four hours, which involved 20-30 residents with different roles. This heritage trail was tested by 20 respondents. The findings showed that the visitors had placed a high value in the experience and enjoyed the different rural activities, apart from proposing several suggestions for trail improvement. Low level of community readiness, lack of facilities, and communication issues were their main concerns for trail improvement. These findings suggest the implementation of stringent and effective action taken by the federal and state governments, apart from including stakeholders to both coordinate and realise the heritage trail in future to increase the competitiveness at the Lenggong Valley as a tourism destination.

Innovation is an important aspect for all sectors including the tourism sector. The challenging external environment forced businesses to innovate for continuously competitive. Accordingly, improvement and creating new product should be implemented in line with the tourist desire. The rural Homestay Program is one of the unique activities and has the potential to grow in tourism. This study intends to explore the implementation of product innovations in this program on the East Coast Federation of Malaya, Malaysia. Two Homestay programs were selected based on the high performance of tourist arrivals in 2016 and have a uniqueness of the packages offered. A qualitative approach using a face-to-face interview has been done with the Homestay’s coordinators. The findings show that the Homestay programs have implemented the product innovation in terms of accommodation, activity packages and enterprises. This result can be used by the industry to upgrade the program Homestay in Malaysia as an effort to increase competitive advantage through innovation.

Innovation is an important aspect in tourism sector. The increasingly challenging external environment is forcing businesses to innovate for continuously competitive. Homestay program is a form of rural tourism activity that has its own uniqueness and potential to contribute to the socio -economic development among local community. However, lack of awareness on the importance of innovation implementation can lead to the failure of some homestay programs. This study aims to explore the capability of product innovation implementation; and had identified determinant factors that influence innovation implementation in homestay program. In total, eight homestay programs at Peninsular Malaysia were selected based on several criteria. Face-to-face interviews were conducted with the homestays’ coordinators and the collected data were analysed using content analysis technique. Results have shown that the most significant product innovation implemented are the improvement of accommodation quality, uniqueness of rural activity packages and small-medium enterprises development. There are four determinant factors were found including market orientation, entrepreneurial spirit, government supports and knowledge. This result can be used by industry players as a benchmark to upgrade the other program homestay in Malaysia to be more successful.