Bamboo, pineapples, coconuts suitable alternative crops for smallholders – Teresa

KUALA LUMPUR: Bamboo, pineapples and coconuts should be grown as alternative crops for supplementary income but this should not be taken to mean oil palm should be replaced as a commodity entirely by smallholders as it has been their sole source of revenue, says Primary Industries Minister Teresa Kok Suh Sim.

While clarifying a news report today headlined “Forget Oil Palm, Plant Bamboo”, she said her earlier suggestion to cultivate bamboo was to counter the negative perception in the West towards Malaysia’s mass cultivaton of oil palm.

Kok was specifically referring to certain areas in Pahang where, for example, bamboo was grown in abundance.

“The content of the report is acceptable, but not the headline,” she said in a statement, referring to her press conference yesterday in Bentong, Pahang, where she was asked to comment on the government’s intention to limit oil palm hectarage.

Explaining further on the government’s move to limit land under oil palm cultivation , the minister said it was an effort to combat the anti-palm oil sentiment in Europe which was now affecting the export of palm oil to global markets, in particular European countries.

The ministry has taken steps and was continuing with efforts to counter the adverse effects of the campaign.