KUCHING: About 58 per cent of the 1.58 million hectares of oil palm in Sarawak have obtained the Malaysian Sustainable Palm Oil (MSPO) certification.
Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas said 908,015ha had been certified, making Sarawak the next largest state to have the certification after Negri Sembilan which achieved 69 per cent.
He was informed by the Malaysia Palm Oil Board during a briefing, attended by Primary Industries Minister Teresa Kok, at his office at Wisma Bapa, here, today.
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 efforts to increase our beef self-sufficiency which is currently only at 10 per cent,” he said.
Uggah, who is also the Minister of Modernisation of Agriculture, Native Land and Regional Development, also made a request to Kok for funds to be allocated to the state under the 12th Malaysian Plan for it expand this cattle and goat inter-cropping programme to more farmers.
“We have the pawah system where we loan cattle to those keen as a means to diversify their income.
“We expect them to return the same number of cattle to us in six years.”
The state has been importing between 1,000 and 1,500 cattle every year from its farms in Australia to be shared among those interested.
Singapore, he said, had expressed interest in buying 3,000 goats per year from Sarawak.
“We are now exporting 1,200 live pigs besides other pork products to Singapore weekly.
“Last year, we sold some RM50 million worth to Singapore and they also indicated interest to buy goats from Sarawak as well,” he said.
Sarawak has been embarking on high technology modern agriculture as part of efforts to become a net exporter of food and food products by 2030, he said.
Kok welcomed the various initiatives from the state government and said the ministry would work closely with Sarawak to diversify the income of farmers.