KUCHING: Some 908,015 hectares (58 per cent) out of a total area of 1.58 million hectares for oil palm in Sarawak have obtained the Malaysian Sustainable Palm Oil (MSPO) in August.
This makes Sarawak the next state to have the certification after Negeri Sembilan at 69 per cent.
This was revealed during a briefing by the Malaysia Palm Oil Board on the progress of the nationwide certification drive at deputy chief minister Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas’ office here yesterday.
Primary Industries minister Teresa Kok was among those present.
To date, an area of almost three million hectares (51 per cent) out of a total area of 5.8 million hectares nationwide has also been MSPO-certified during the same period.
Speaking before the briefing, Uggah reiterated that Sarawak would no longer allow oil palm cultivation on state land.
“We now allow only two million hectares to be planted with the commodity. Our focus will be to increase the productivity in existing areas.
“We will begin cattle rearing programmes in all these cultivated areas as part of the effort to increase our beef self-sufficiency level, which is currently only at 10 per cent,” he said.
Uggah, who is also the Modernisation of Agriculture, Native Land and Regional Development minister, made a request to Kok for funds to be allocated to the state under the 12th Malaysia Plan to help it expand its cattle and goat programmes to more farmers.
“We have the Pawah system where we loan cattle to those keen to diversify their income.
“We expect them to return to us in six years’ time the same number of cattle that we distributed to them.
“So far we have done this quite successfully with agencies like Salcra, Doppa and a local oil palm corporation Ta Ann Holdings Berhad,” he said.
Uggah said his ministry would hand over 200 cattle to Felcra this year as well.
He added the state imported between 1,000 and 1,500 cattle every year from its farms in Australia.
“Now we are exporting 1,200 live pigs besides other pork products to Singapore each week.
“Last year, we sold some RM50 million worth to Singapore.
“Singapore too had recently indicated its interest to buy 3,000 goats from Sarawak per year,” he said.
Uggah said the state aimed to become a net exporter of food and food products by 2030.
“We are now making many preparations like embarking on high technology modern agriculture to allow us to do this.”
Meanwhile, Kok said her ministry would like to work with the Agriculture Ministry too in efforts to diversify the income of the nation’s farmers.
