Oil palm smallholders: Rural folk need roads to progress

KUCHING: Road is the best gift to the rural folk because it opens areas that were once inaccessible and get them to start tilling their idle land for a possible big business venture.
Many rural folk though rich in land are rather poor because of the non existence of roads leading to their land and as such the land are mostly idle and bring them little benefit.
With roads already put in place, the people were encouraged to start planting cash crops particularly oil palm, said one of the successful oil palm smallholders Mengga Mikui.
When met here yesterday Mengga, who has an oil palm estate in Selangau, said if the government was serious in pushing the NKRA initiatives to help the rural folk to improve their livelihood, it was road that they wanted first and foremost.
National Key Result Areas (NKRA) is being championed by Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Dato Sri Idris Jala and initiated by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Najib Tun Razak.
Mengga claimed there was no ‘chicken-and-egg’ situation when it comes to improving the livelihood of the people in general.
“Rural people, especially the Dayaks who are mostly rich in land, are not lazy.
“Give them roads and not only will they start planting crops and vegetables, they will take their produce to the towns to sell,” he said.
He was accompanied by another successful entrepreneur, Mawan Was, who has oil palm estates in Sungai Paoh and Ulu Minus, Sarikei.
Political-conscious Mengga stood as Parti Keadilan Rakyat candidate in Tamin during the 2011 state election.
He lost by 1,292 votes to Barisan Nasional-PRS candidate Joseph Mauh.
He said he was rather fortunate to have started a small plantation early because by the time it brought in returns, the plantation saved him from ‘bankruptcy’ after spending almost all of his fortune in his political adventure.
Losing the election was however not so bad at all because along the way, he made new friends and also managed to advise them to go into oil palm plantation, said Mengga, a former civil servant.
He said he would continue to advise the people, especially friends in the rural areas, not to underestimate the dividends of oil palm venture as it was still the number one cash crop of the nation.


Read more: http://www.theborneopost.com/2012/07/27/oil-palm-smallholders-rural-folk-need-roads-to-progress/#ixzz21y1LvDtP

Harvesting The FFB

Planted in 2008, now produce about 5 tonnes per hectare.

Cuaca Panas

Walaupun tiada hujan turun selama dua minggu, sawit ini nampaknya masih boleh bertahan. Gambar ini menunjukkan anak sawit tumbuh subur sebulan penanaman di lapangan.

Fruiting at year three

My oil palm finally start producing and harvesting on the 3rd year after planting. I started in 2007 with 1000 germinated seed from Borneo Samudera, Sabah.

Planting Material

12 months old planting material is ready for field planting. Planting distance 7.5 m - 8. 5 depending on type of soil and terrence.

AA Hybrida DxP Seedling

My 12 months old AA Hybrida seedling growing well after one month field planting.

My Formula Of Earning RM100K Per Year

If you believe in hard work,  you can earn RM100,000 per year by becoming a planter. I have this idea of planting 10 ha for a start by just purchase 1,500 germinated seed from licence nursery of MPOB. An estimated amount of RM 5,000 per ha is sufficient to develop and maintained oil palm until fruiting, provided the land is your own and the location is not far from main road or nearby estate. Your  total cost is about RM50,000  but this figure is accumulated over the period of 3 to 4 years of spending, so you don't really feel the burden of financing your enterprise.

3 heads of Brahman cattle integration

To maximise land utilization, you can also introduce about 3 heads of cattle (2 female & 1 male) for cattle integration when the oil palm reach 5 years old.  Using this concept, you can reduce cost of maintaining your cattle because plenty of forage underneath at the same time for cost cutting on fertilizer and weeding. Cattle will do natural grazing and the manure you can collect and treated with Effective Microorganism (EM) for organic fertilizer.

If the FFB price is around RM600 per tonne, you are expected to get a gross income of about RM3,000 per month after 4 years. And hopefully when your palm reach 8-10 year you should be able to get about RM10,000 per month.

It is a good idea to introduce free ranch livestock such as cross-bred chicken if you are doing this fultime. Your chicken will reach marketable age at 3 months and with a profit of about RM5 per heads. If you rear  5,000 heads of chicken with 4 batches per year, your income will be RM100,000 nett. You must secure your own market and ready for sacrifice of your time. The chicken dung to collect for fertilizer.

Gaharu trees can be planted at the perimeter as boundaries and need to be injected with fungus at the age of 5 years in order to produce resin. . Hope to have a good agarwood after 10 years. The price is RM10,000 per kg. You may plant 100 trees depending on your budget.

Gaharu tree in 4 years old palm

Finally, if you are interested in swiftlet farming, you can spend about RM20,000 for erect a building measuring 16' x 24' two storey, 20 feets tall. If you are lucky you may get about 1 kg permonth on th 2nd year. A residual income of about RM4,000 per month. While waiting for the swiftlet to multiple, you can utilize the ground floor as store..

12' x 24 ' x 20' Swiftlet House capable of generating 1kg of EBN

With the about concept I think to become millionaire after 10 years is achievable, hopefully. Happy retirement is for sure.