Uggah (centre) receiving his Fellowship of Incorporated Society of Planters Award from Daud.
KUCHING: Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas was awarded the Fellowship of Incorporated Society of Planters Award to acknowledge his contribution to the country’s agriculture industry.
The award was presented by Incorporated Society of Planters (ISP) chairman Datuk Daud Amatzin at a dinner held in conjunction with the 12th ISP Seminar here last Monday.
Uggah, who was the former Minister of Plantation Industries and Commodities, said that his highest personal achievement during his three-year tenure in the ministry was the establishment of the Council of Oil Palm Producing Countries (CPOPC) last November.
The CPOPC headquarters located at Jakarta, Indonesia aimed to promote the benefits of the oil palm industry since Malaysia and Indonesia contributed 85 per cent of global palm oil.
The council would also assist small holders on sustainable palm oil which the government is serious in its effort to strengthen the plantation industry.
Earlier, he clarified that Malaysia does not practise child labour in the plantation industry as claimed by the international community.
“I have informed them that in Malaysia it is a tradition for children to assist their parents for survival purposes.” Uggah added that at the age of ten years old, he was assisting both his parents at the rubber estate and stressed that it was not child labour.
During the event the Datuk Leslie Davidson Award with a cash prize of RM10,000 was awarded to Chan Weng Hoong for the Best Technical Article (2015) entitled ‘Dry Matter Production of Havea Clone PB 260’.
Ching Gait Fee won RM5,000 with the article entitled ‘The Control of Swamp Giant Rat (Sundamys Muelleri, Jentik, Muridae, Rodentia) Infestation by Shooting’.
Meanwhile the Gerry Tilley Award was awarded to Jaya Raj Bala Subramanian who bagged RM5,000.