KUCHING, Oct 31 (Bernama) -- Sarawak is expected to develop a total of onemillion hectares of oil palm plantation by 2010.The staggered development will take in 30,000 hectares of Native CustomaryRights (NCR) land and 40,000 hectares of state land per annum.Sarawak Rural and Land Development assistant minister, Datuk Gramong Junatold the State Legislative Assembly Thursday that this meant that a totalof 750,000 hectares of land in Sarawak would be cultivated with the cashcrop in the next five years."Up to now about 400,000 hectares have been planted with oil palm trees,"he said when replying to Lee Kim Shin (BN-Senadin) during question time.He said the Malaysia Palm Oil Board (MPOB), which is responsible for theresearch and development (R&D), had come with 30 new products/findings.including palm-based polyurethanes, crayons, grease and various personalcare extractions.MPOB continued to show progress in the development of high quality mediumdensity fibreboard from oil palm fibre with the establishment of its pilotplant while technology for using its fibre in road-making was alsointroduced.He said in food application, high-energy biscuit formulated with mediumchain triglycerides, low calorie bakery margarine and high-fibre chocolatehad been introduced using palm oil as an ingredient.Various methods for controlling pests in the plantation were also madeavailable to the industry such as the use of cassia cobanensis asbeneficial plant for bagworm control. -- BERNAMA