Covering Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei, Agriculture in the Malaysian Region, originally published in 1982, presents a detailed description of the region's agro-systems, including shifting cultivation, wet rice production, smallholder tree-crop and mixed forms cultivation, plantation systems, and intensive market-gardening with livestock production.

For this edition, the author has updated the original text while retaining the original framework of analysis, setting major developments in agriculture against the backdrop of cultural change affecting the region's economy as a whole. Singapore has seen a shift from highly labour intensive production to very capital intensive and specialised forms of production. Capital intensity has also increased in Malaysia, which now faces the problem of increasing labour costs. The book concludes with an attempt to identify likely changes in the agricultural sector in the medium term.