BAU: Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Agro-Based Industry Datuk Anthony Nogeh suggests that smallholders plant cash crops in their oil palm plantation, especially during the early stages, to earn extra income.
He said crops such as durians and pineapples are worth planting together with oil palm as both have good demand.
He believed that inter-cropping would offer numerous advantages as it would, among others, reduce the cost of weeding, while earning good revenue for the inter-croppers.
“Planting durians will also give you money in a long run, and if you plant pineapples, they will also give you money while waiting for the oil palm to come into production,” he said at the closing of an awareness programme for NCR Oil Palm Small-holders on MSPO certification at the civic centre here yesterday.
Nogeh said small holders could plant one durian tree for every10 rows of oil palm on their land.
The market for durian, especially Musang King, and MD2 pineapple is not a problem now, he said, adding that a Musang King could fetch RM100 per kg. There is also high demand for durian (Musang King) paste and MD2 pineapple in China.