By NSTP online
Jan 6, 2005, 18:09

Malaysian banana growing gets a boost

None are farmers but some 95 people, mostly retired senior civil servants, met recently to set up a cooperative to pursue banana planting under a programme called Rural Urban Business Incubation, or RUBI.

The RUBI programme, mooted by Bank Kerjasama Rakyat Bhd chairman Tan Sri Dr Syed Jalaludin Syed Salim, is aimed at raising the standard of living in rural areas.

Syed Jalaludin had a few months ago challenged former director-general of the Department of Environment Datuk Abu Bakar Jaafar to look into a number of potential economic activities that can be promoted in the rural setting.

Abu Bakar, after undertaking extensive research, identified the Cavendish banana-based agro-enviro industry, which will not only contribute to a vibrant rural-urban eonomy, but also to the growth of the food production sector of the national economy.

Why bananas?
“The economic entry into banana planting is low, and yet, it has the potential of growing from smallholding to plantation-scale operations, followed by downstream processing, product diversification and development of a chain of marketing and sophisticated retail outlets,” Abu Bakar commented.

Bananas, once processed, can be turned into numerous edible food products including sweetmeats, figs (dried slivers or slices), kerepek (chips), pisang salai (solar-dried bananas), health-foods, banana-mixed-nuts bars and flour (dried and powdered unripe bananas).

The economics of banana growing could be further enhanced by going downstream into food processing and by converting wasted biomass into animal feed from the leaves; pulp and paper from the trunks; vermin-compost, bio-gas, or renewable fuel-energy in the form of ethanol from all the waste.

RUBI-Banan Sdn Bhd, has already been registered to undertake the business for the proposed cooperative.

“There are some 100,000 hectar of idle land throughout the country. The RUBI programme is one way in which we can turn the idle land into something productive. Some state governments have given us indication of their interest in this project,” Abu Bakar said.

The Synergy Farm (M) Sdn Bhd, owned by cardiologist Dr Zainuddin Wazir, is the largest Cavendish banana producer in the north of the peninsula. Apart from being the contract farmer for the first nucleus farm, it will also handle all activities from land suitability study and clearing, planting, growing, harvesting, processing and to buyback purchasing of the produce at an agreed cost of development and purchasing price.

The nucleus farmer will understudy the contracted farmer during the first year of the contract. In the second year, Synergy Farm will continue as a contract farmer to develop the next nucleus farm while supervising the first nucleus farmer until he graduates to undertake a new nucleus development on its own.

Abu Bakar expects the number of nucleus farmers to grow at a polynomial rate. By the fifth year, the number of nucleus farmers is expected to be 32, with a minimum acreage of 3,200 acres with an annual gross income of at least RM132 million for fresh fruit only.

The land under production will also double under the RUBI programme, with additional contribution up to RM132 million by participating small growers. (Source: NSTP online)