Golden Crop

Planning for retirement started with planting 100 ha of oil Palm over 10 years. This crop able to generate RM100 per tree with the present FFB price of RM550 per tonne.

Ministry to appoint agents to reduce rubber price manipulation

http://www.theborneopost.com/?p=115160

SERIAN: Ministry of Plantation Industries and Commodities is planning to appoint agents to buy rubber products directly from the rubber tappers in an effort to reduce price manipulation by middlemen, revealed its minister Tan Sri Bernard Dompok.

He added that even though there was lesser incidence of manipulation by the middlemen in Sarawak, the ministry would go ahead with its plan.

“What we can do is to appoint agents like what Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB) is doing. By doing this we will reduce the incidence of (price) manipulation by middlemen especially in the rural areas,” Dompok told the media after officiating at the Malaysian Rubber Board Clone Expansion Project at Kampung Lebor, near here yesterday.

He was responding to a call by local smallholders who have complained that the price of the commodity has fluctuated due to control by the middlemen.

On a related matter, Dompok said he would be bidding for a fund to plant some 25,000 hectares of rubber in Sarawak in the next five years.

“I am confident the government will provide the fund because rubber is now one of the 12 areas of the National Key Economic Areas (NKEA). The government wants to add it together with palm oil,” said Dompok.

If successful, each participants will be allocated RM13,000 per hectare of rubber which will be planted throughout the state.

Currently there are some 158,491 hectares of rubber planted in Sarawak which are mostly owned by the smallholders.

“Our target is to identify other areas which are suitable for the crop,” he added.

Dompok revealed that under the Ninth Malaysia Plan, the federal government had allocated some RM8.394 million for 1,450 hectares of rubber in 36 locations in Sarawak.

He said the scheme has already benefited 1,550 smallholders.

“There is definitely bright future for the local rubber industry,” stressed Dompok.

Meanwhile, Malaysia Rubber Board (MRB) secretary-general Datuk Dr Salmiah Ahmad revealed that some 250,000 smallholders have benefited from the scheme provided by MRB.

“Our research and development has enabled us to produce higher yield rubber trees which increased productivity of our smallholders,” she added.

Hassan dilantik sebagai temenggung Penan pertama

Posted on April 3, 2011, Sunday

MIRI: Kebajikan kaum Penan di negeri ini akan lebih terjamin dengan pelantikan jutawan Penan, Datuk Hassan Sui sebagai temenggung Penan yang pertama semalam. Surat pelantikan beliau itu telah disampaikan Timbalan Ketua Menteri Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Alfred Jabu Num-pang pada satu majlis ringkas yang diadakan di pejabatnya (Jabu) di Kuching, Jumaat lalu.

Hassan, 63, ketika ditemui pemberita setibanya di Lapangan Terbang Miri dari Kuching lewat petang semalam menyifatkan pelantikan beliau sebagai penghargaan dan pengiktirafan paling tinggi kepada masyarakat Penan di negeri ini.

“Istimewanya pelantikan ini ialah saya bukan hanya dilantik sebagai temenggung Penan bagi kawasan Miri sahaja tetapi Sarawak keseluruhannya,” ujar beliau yang ternya-ta amat terharu dengan pelantikan tersebut. Justeru beliau mengucapkan berbanyak terima kasih kepada kerajaan di bawah pimpinan Ketua Menteri Pehin Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud kerana telah memberi kepercayaan kepada beliau untuk menyandang jawatan sebagai ketua masyarakat kaum Penan.

Menurut beliau, apabila dilantik sebagai temenggung, sudah pasti tanggungjawab yang dipikulnya juga berat memandangkan beliau perlu menjaga kebajikan semua kaum Penan yang ada di ne-geri ini. “Saya akan berusaha meningkatkan taraf ekonomi kaum Penan yang dianggarkan seramai 16,000 orang serta tinggal secara bertaburan di beberapa bahagian di negeri ini,” jelas beliau.

Menyentuh sedikit latar belakangnya, Hassan yang merupakan ayah kepada sembilan orang anak merupakan jutawan Penan bukan sahaja di Malaysia tetapi juga di seluruh dunia. Beliau yang dilahirkan pada 7 April 1948 di Ulu Suai mula mendapat pendidikan awal pada Januari 1957 sebelum melanjutkan pelajaran ke peringkat sekolah rendah atas di Central Upper Primary School, Bekenu pada 1962 dan 1963.

Dilahirkan dalam sebuah keluarga Penan yang berpindah-randah, beliau yang merupakan anak kaum Penan yang pertama memijakkan kaki ke sekolah hanya mendapat pendidikan sehingga Darjah Enam. Pada 1968 dan 1969, beliau telah bekerja dengan kerajaan sebagai Upriver Agent (URA) di Tegageng Suai dan kemudian dilantik sebagai Pesuruhjaya Perkhidmatan Awam Negeri dari 1978 hingga 1985.

Manakala pada 1991 hingga 2000, Hassan telah dilantik sebagai Pegawai Hal Ehwal Pembangunan Orang Penan Sarawak sebelum melibatkan diri secara aktif dalam bidang perladangan kelapa sawit. Sementara itu, daripada sembilan orang anaknya, empat daripadanya berjaya melanjutkan pelajaran hingga ke menara gading yang terdiri daripada Maria Hassan lulusan Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM) Kedah, Serina Hassan (universiti di Amerika Syarikat), Azlan Hassan (university di Australia) dan Herman (INTI College Kuching).

Minister wants National Food Policy to be continued

Posted on January 11, 2011, Tuesday

PUTRAJAYA: The Agriculture and Agro-based Industry Ministry will propose to the Cabinet that the National Food Security Policy which ended in 2010 be continued to ensure sufficient food supply at all times.

Its minister Datuk Seri Noh Omar said the proposal paper was ready and would be submitted to the Cabinet soon. We cannot guarantee the proposal will be approved as we all know that the policy was introduced to assist farmers, fishermen and livestock breeders faced with high agriculture input costs due to the oil price hike.“But we will be appealing to the Cabinet for the policy to be continued,” he told reporters after delivering his New Year message to the ministry’s officers and staff here yesterday.

The National Food Security was introduced in 2008 to increase food production and ensure stable food prices in the country following the global food crisis that year. Noh said under the policy, RM3 billion was allocated for agriculture development from 2008 to 2010.

He said this year, RM2.77 billion was allocated for management expenditure, of which RM1.54 billion was for increasing padi output, whereby farmers would be provided assistance. The assistance is in the form of fertiliser subsidy (RM409 million), padi price subsidy (RM480 million), padi seed subsidy (RM85 million), padi production incentive (RM150 million), increased padi yield subsidy (RM80 million) and rice price subsidy (RM167 million).

Noh said the ministry also required an additional allocation of RM400 million for the padi sector to ensure supply would not be affected by problems caused by unpredictable weather conditions. He said under the Tenth Malaysia Plan, the ministry was allocated RM1.6 billion for a two-year period (2011-2012) by the Economic Planning Unit to implement the agriculture National Key Result Area.

“A sum of RM821.4 million is allocated this year to implement 11 projects, including the large-scale Integrated Aquaculture Zone, increasing padi yields, and raising livestock breeding-oil palm plantation integration.” Noh also said that about RM2 million would be disbursed to eligible livestock breeders affected by the foot and mouth disease (FMD) outbreak.

Veterinary Services director-general Datuk Dr Abdul Aziz Jamaluddin had earlier confirmed that the FMD had attacked dairy cattle in Kedah, Perak, Selangor, Negeri Sembilan and Terengganu.

Income of poor farmers and fishermen improving, says MP

By VANES DEVINDRAN
vanes@thestar.com.my

ASSISTANCE rendered to poor farmers and fishermen in the Santubong area in terms of raw materials and equipment are producing positive returns, says Deputy Parliament Speaker Datuk Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar.
He revealed that recently a particular group of recipients gained a total of RM15,000, triple the amount of what had been invested in the materials and equipment.
“The first time we did this (providing assistance) was four years ago and I did an evaluation on the income of the recipients before and after the assistance. There was an increase,” he told reporters after giving out assistance to fishermen and farmers in the Santubong consitituency in Kuching yesterday.
Junaidi, who is Santubong MP, also said there had been no reports so far on recipients selling the raw materials or equipment given to them.
“They are all making use of the items and so this is working towards a positive direction,” he said.
He said he worked with the Fishermen and Farmers Associations in his constituency to keep tabs on the development after giving out the assistance.
Having said that, Junaidi urge the villagers to work in a more coordinated manner so that it would be easier and much more efficient when it comes to finding customers for their products.
He said proper delegation was the key to making a business thrive in a village that was dabbling with the same product.
“They must work as a team. Not all should plant or fish. You need to have someone doing the fishing and farming, and also someone to coordinate and focus on marketing. If all were to do one job, then who’s going to focus on marketing or packaging?” he said.
He said a village must also diversify their farming according to market demand and avoid focusing on one kind of crop or fruit tree alone.
He advised the people to seek advice from agencies like the Agriculture Department and also the Federal Agriculture and Marketing Authority.
Yesterday’s ceremony had 183 recipients and the total cost of the raw materials and equipment supplied namely fertilisers, oven, engine pump, fishing net and bush cutter, came to around RM100,000.
Junaidi said with the rising cost of materials these days, his side would put in a request for additional funding for next year.

‘Castor plantation has potential’

by Lim How Pin. Posted on October 11, 2010, Monday

KUCHING: A factory to extract castor – an oilbearing crop – may be set up in Kuching division by 2013. Its presence will position Malaysia as a major castor contributor.

BEARING FRUIT: Tan (centre) with Casa Kinabalu chairman Salamat Othman (fourth right) and others pose with castor plants. — Photo by Louis Koh

Assistant minister in the Chief Minister’s Department Tan Joo Phoi said castor plantation had high potential to generate more revenues for the country as the extracted product could be exported to Europe, the US, China, India and Russia.

“The climate here is suitable for planting castor and once it is in mass production, we can export extracted castor oil to foreign markets. “More farmers in the state should be part of the castor plantation programme because castor oil comes with high global demand,” he said at the castor plantation harvesting ceremony undertaken by Casa Kinabalu Sdn Bhd at the Tapah Community Hall, over 20 miles from here yesterday.

Tan, who is Batu Kawah assemblyman, was pleased that the first batch of castor plantation in Tapah was ready for harvesting.

“I remember launching the plantation site two or three months ago and it is now almost harvest time. It shows that castor plants bear fruits within months and the industry is set to bring about stable income for farmers.”

Noting that Casa Kinabalu Sdn Bhd is a West Malaysia-based corporation, he said it should work closely with some local institutes here to come up with training courses to groom the industry.

Castor oil can be used as transport biofuel, a renewable alternative to petrol, a refined fuel made from hydrocarbon oil, according to a pamphlet Casa Kinabalu Sdn Bhd distributed yesterday. The world annual production has reached 1.2 million tonnes with India, China and Brazil as the major producing countries.

Two Sarawak breeders rewarded

Two Sarawak breeders rewarded

Tuesday, 30 November 2010 14:07

KUALA LUMPUR: A ruminant breeder from Mukah and a livestock entrepreneur from Kuching-Serian Road were among award winners at the Malaysian Agriculture, Horticulture and Agro-tourism Show (MAHA) 2010 launched by Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak at the Malaysian Agro Exposition Park Serdang (MAEPS) last Saturday.

The two bagged for the first time, the National Awards for Successful Ruminant Ent repreneur and the Successful Non-Ruminant Entrepreneur Categories, respectively. Hajah Fatimah bint i Suhaibo, who is the manager of FG Multifarm received her award as the National winner in the Successful Ruminant Entrepreneur category for her success as the entrepreneur for a goat and cattle farm, FG Multifarm at Km28, Mukah- Balingian coastal highway.

Her farm holds around 1,800 heads of various breeds of goats, sheep and cattle at its peak, and currently supplies domestic demands, and have also made exports of live animals to Brunei.

In addition, FG Multifarm also processes solid and liquid fertilisers from animal wastes from the farm. This helps the farm to practice ‘zero waste’ farming with active local inputs to manage costs. The farm also formulates its own animal feed from local resources and maize. Maize is planted by Mukah Agro Farm of which Hajah Fatimah is the Chairman and CEO. Mukah Agro Farm applies the concept of contract farming in developing ‘idle’ land in Mukah.

It is able to do this by focusing on the hardcore poor who are listed in the e-kasih programme, with the help of TEKUN. In addition, the farm also provides employment to single mothers in the processing of farm products before they are dispatched to the market. Both FG Multifarm and Mukah Agro Farm offer attachment training to local entrepreneurs, university students and the Semenggok Agriculture Institute.

Hajah Fatimah also won in the state-level Small Ruminant Category at the state-level Farmers, Breeders and Fishermen’s Day (HPPN) held at Betong recently.

In the same event, Sarawak’s premier livestock breeder, Dr Ng Siew Thiam from QL Livestock Farming Sdn Bhd, Kuching, won the National level Successful Non-ruminant category. Ng is the Executive Director of QL Livestock Farming, a 90- acre farm at Mile 25, Kuching- Serian Road. The farm has more than 600,000 chickens and produces around 400,000 eggs daily. The farm is fully automated. The farm’s products are supplied to the local market and exported to Indonesia and Hong Kong.

The farm also produces its own animal feed from maize grains imported from India, Argentina and Thailand and employs 180 workers.

Ng expressed interest in buying locally produced maize of which his co-winner Hajah Fatimah Suhaibo is a leading producer in Sarawak. The farm also offers attachment training to livestock breeders, university students and local entrepreneurs.

Ng was also a winner in a similar category at the state-level Farmers, Breeders and Fishermen’s Day held at Betong recently.