Dr Annuar given the honour to plant the first pepper cutting at the pepper farm project site.
BINTULU: The planting of 400 pepper cuttings at the pepper farm project site in Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) Bintulu campus yesterday was the beginning of more development efforts to commercialise the commodity to the world.
Assistant Minister of Education, Science and Technological Research Dr Annuar Rapa’ee said research and development (R&D) is an area Sarawak government is focusing on.
“The big players in Sarawak only focus on oil palm plantations which give more profits and fast returns, but they do not realise that pepper is a profitable commodity too,” he said at the Sarawak Pepper Farm@UPM Bintulu — pepper planting programme here yesterday morning.
“The problem with pepper is that it is something not easy to be planted and can be easily infected by disease. If we can do a complete research on how to protect pepper from being infected by disease and thus increase production, I believed the big players in Sarawak will open their eyes and see the huge potential of this commodity to be further commercialised and improve the economy of the Sarawak people.
“At the moment, as most of the pepper plantations are run by smallholders, we have difficulty increasing pepper production,” Dr Annuar added.
He said even though Sarawak produced 98 per cent of pepper in Malaysia, it is still behind Cambodia, Vietnam and Indonesia.
“Let us start at UPM to prove something not only to the whole of Malaysia but to the world that this is the origin of the best pepper in the world,” he said.
He added pepper has great historical value to Sarawak as it was known to be one of the reasons for the arrival of James Brooke which eventually led to Sarawak being colonised by the British.
“I think one of the reasons why James Brooke came to Sarawak was because of Sarawak pepper as it was one of the commodities needed by Europe at that time,” he said.
Dr Annuar congratulated UPM for answering the government’s call to work together in R&D especially in the food and agricultural sector.
He believed with the success in R&D, Sarawak will be able to produce not only the best pepper but the best deal to contribute to the economic development of the people in the future.
He also urged more research be done on downstream production so that pepper farmers can get more profits.
“I think one way to improve the economy of the farmers is by planting pepper; I was informed that there are a few of these farmers especially in Sarikei and Julau who become millionaires after they plant pepper,” said Dr Annuar.
He reiterated Sarawak’s commitment to go for R&D by using Thailand as an example of a powerhouse in agriculture and food production because of its more advanced R&D.
Sarawak government, he said has set up a Research and Development Council.
“ I think this is the first council set up by any state government in Malaysia, because we emphasis more on translational research to commercialised our research,” he said adding that the council has come up with five cluster areas and one of it is food and agriculture.
Meanwhile, UPM Bintulu campus director Prof Dr Bujang Kim Huat said Sarawak is the only significant pepper producer in Malaysia and UPM is stepping up its effort in R&D in order to get the best pepper products for commercialisation.
The Sarawak Pepper Farm@UPM Bintulu was launched in Kuching on Oct 18 last year consisting of three main components namely commercial, research and community.
Two hectares of land in UPM Bintulu campus was open to accommodate nine pepper research projects.