Conceptualising the sustainable and highest-best use (SHBU) towards empowering rural land development in Malaysia

Rural land development focuses on settlements and agricultural areas are crucial to be managed efficiently. This paper highlights the FELDA settlement area as in Malaysia FELDA has become an established organization that manages both the rural settlements and the crop areas well. The Felda scheme has changed the lives of landless residents by providing housing, employment, income from agribusiness shareholders, and the ownership of valuable land titles. Improving productivity and the quality of rural settlement and crop area plantation operation is one of the most difficult challenges and groundwork. Therefore, determining the highest and best use and ensuring the sustainability of the development needs to be catered for. This paper will conceptualize the elements essential for SHBU, and then, from the SHBU model, it will further develop the assessment of land suitability for crops and other land uses. This shows that the framework can assist in determining the highest and best use of the available land. The findings can be implemented in other rural areas within other agencies concerned with managing and developing rural and regional areas, such as RISDA, FELCRA, UDA and other rural development agencies in Malaysia