MARKET DEVELOPMENT
New Technology, Management Make Peat Land Suitable For Oil Palm
New Technology, Management Make Peat Land Suitable For Oil Palm
09/09/2013 (Borneo Post) - Permanent secretary of the Land Development Ministry Datuk Jaul Samion said the Tropical Peat and Oil Palm 2013 Workshop held yesterday clearly has shown that the oil palm industry has turned peat land, which was considered not suitable for agriculture, into productive plantations.
“Peat land was something that we cannot use before. But now, it has been used to generate income. “New things are coming up now. Now the industry is talking about better management in oil palm estates in peat areas.
“They are heading to even more precision management and with better management, there will be higher income,” said Jaul to thesundaypost on the sideline of Tropical Peat and Oil Palm Workshop 2013 held here yesterday.
He believed that with correct understanding of managing peat land, there would be sustainable growth and less wastage, which would not only benefit the industry players but also improved environmental preservation and conservation.
“Right practice should be encouraged for sustainability.
As we were told in the workshop, we have to do it right from the beginning or we will be paying a higher cost otherwise,” said Jaul.
Praising the private sector for organising the workshop, he said development of oil palm had been mostly driven by private initiative and the oil palm industry raked in RM9 billion per year for Sarawak.
Another participant, Nawawi Jalaluddin, 39, an oil palm plantation manager who has been working for the last five years at a 5,600-ha private plantation on various type of peat in Tatau, said the workshop had been very helpful to those involved directly in peat land oil palm plantation as it offered very practical advice.
“The plantation that I am managing is on peat land. In the initial stage, we did have some problems. Then we had Dr Lulie (Melling) coming to tell us what was wrong with our plantation.
“She showed us how to manage the peat properly.
Now more than half of the trees are maturing well,” said Nawawi, who is also a small-holder of about seven hectares.
When Nawawi first met Lulie, he found her language such as calling the peat “sexy” a bit too much to digest.
However, later he found her analogies to be easily understood and remembered.
“We call her ‘the Sexy Lulie’ but there is nothing degrading about it. That is just her and her way. Instead, we respect her,” said Nawawi.
Meanwhile, 22-year-old Beatrice Modon, a Plantation Management student from Universiti Institute Technology MARA (UiTM), travelled in a university bus for more than seven hours from Kuching to Sibu to attend the workshop.
There were 12 of them from Plantation Management Faculty itself and there were more from other faculties such as Chemistry Faculty.
“I found the workshop very interesting. We have studied peat soil and its properties in our courses, but here we have been shown how to manage the oil palm in tropical peat.
“It is something new. What we have learnt in our course is something more general. Here, they are much more focused,” said Beatrice.
Beatrice found Lulie’s language or the use of sexual analogies a non-issue to her and her university mates.
“We are young people and we are very open-minded. We find her funny. Anyway, we found the workshop not boring at all as the way the talk was presented makes sense and was easy for us to understand,” said Beatrie.
“Peat land was something that we cannot use before. But now, it has been used to generate income. “New things are coming up now. Now the industry is talking about better management in oil palm estates in peat areas.
“They are heading to even more precision management and with better management, there will be higher income,” said Jaul to thesundaypost on the sideline of Tropical Peat and Oil Palm Workshop 2013 held here yesterday.
He believed that with correct understanding of managing peat land, there would be sustainable growth and less wastage, which would not only benefit the industry players but also improved environmental preservation and conservation.
“Right practice should be encouraged for sustainability.
As we were told in the workshop, we have to do it right from the beginning or we will be paying a higher cost otherwise,” said Jaul.
Praising the private sector for organising the workshop, he said development of oil palm had been mostly driven by private initiative and the oil palm industry raked in RM9 billion per year for Sarawak.
Another participant, Nawawi Jalaluddin, 39, an oil palm plantation manager who has been working for the last five years at a 5,600-ha private plantation on various type of peat in Tatau, said the workshop had been very helpful to those involved directly in peat land oil palm plantation as it offered very practical advice.
“The plantation that I am managing is on peat land. In the initial stage, we did have some problems. Then we had Dr Lulie (Melling) coming to tell us what was wrong with our plantation.
“She showed us how to manage the peat properly.
Now more than half of the trees are maturing well,” said Nawawi, who is also a small-holder of about seven hectares.
When Nawawi first met Lulie, he found her language such as calling the peat “sexy” a bit too much to digest.
However, later he found her analogies to be easily understood and remembered.
“We call her ‘the Sexy Lulie’ but there is nothing degrading about it. That is just her and her way. Instead, we respect her,” said Nawawi.
Meanwhile, 22-year-old Beatrice Modon, a Plantation Management student from Universiti Institute Technology MARA (UiTM), travelled in a university bus for more than seven hours from Kuching to Sibu to attend the workshop.
There were 12 of them from Plantation Management Faculty itself and there were more from other faculties such as Chemistry Faculty.
“I found the workshop very interesting. We have studied peat soil and its properties in our courses, but here we have been shown how to manage the oil palm in tropical peat.
“It is something new. What we have learnt in our course is something more general. Here, they are much more focused,” said Beatrice.
Beatrice found Lulie’s language or the use of sexual analogies a non-issue to her and her university mates.
“We are young people and we are very open-minded. We find her funny. Anyway, we found the workshop not boring at all as the way the talk was presented makes sense and was easy for us to understand,” said Beatrie.