IN gardening, or for that matter in general agriculture or horticulture, there is no way to avoid plant propagation if one is serious about growing beautiful plants and increasing the stocks of the desired valuable varieties.
This is all the more important considering that plants have been leveraged on by many businessmen to rake in tons of profit. Even some poor kampung folks in Sabah have now seen the benefits of latching onto the bandwagon. In fact, many of such folks are now visible in a number of small towns such as Ranau, Beaufort, Poring, Kudat, Telupid, etc. Hopefully, the even smaller towns such as Paginatan, Pagalongan and Long Pa Sia may benefit too from this trend. In line with this, it is most timely that our learned State Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food Industries Datuk Jamawi Jaafar, has now been actively involved especially during the recent couple of years where he was instrumental in trumpeting about food security and highlighting the need to implement agricultural projects to lift the poor farming community out of poverty. Recent news in the media have also reported him as saying that the school farm programme will be expanded on a large scale from next year onwards.
This is good news indeed as it is more effective to inculcate in Sabahans from young the importance of plants in food security and agricultural entrepreneurship.
That the low income farming community and rural folks have now seen the good tidings is a positive sign indeed. This means it is easier to convince them to go all out to profit from budding and other methods of plant propagation and to cultivate high value fruit crops. This brings to mind about incidences of government agencies delivering bud grafted durian saplings to many kampung people about 50 years ago and urging them to plant them to derive revenue after 4-5 years. What actually followed in many cases was that the saplings were not only unplanted after a month, but they were just dumped on the ground floor under the house. Obviously the saplings died. Sadly, many of the poor did not profit from that government initiative. So, who is to be blamed for them to remain in a state of want and unable to gain wealth? Lack of training, guidance or motivation? Laziness? Or waiting for handouts? Or….? As per the title of this story, my view is that relevant hands-on and on-the-ground courses need to be conducted by the right people to expose the folks to the money-making possibilities through the use of correct budding techniques.
Today, it is time for the poor rural folks especially the farming community to wake up and move up the economic ladder and follow the advice of the experts from the Agricultural Department. It is still not too late to embark on some form of agricultural or horticultural activities to ensure they have the opportunity to have a bite or two of the growing economic pie.
Such forms of hands-on and on-the-ground activities include the propagation and sale of plantlets that are of the high value type such as musang king durians, avocado, mango, guava, etc. Around 10-15 years ago, genuine budded plantlets of good durian varieties were on the market for about RM100 each. The price is now lower although acquaintances may sell them for even cheaper.
Such prices are driven by the price of fruits in the market. When fruits of musang king, red prawn or black thorn were going through the stratosphere for more than RM100 per kg, the price of seedlings went up accordingly. Recently, due to a glut of fruits, both the prices of fruits and seedlings are also hovering at a much lower level. This is good news for consumers as it is not known when the next round of price drop may be on the scene.
The good news is that an acre of land may sustain from 70-108 budded durian trees, and for a rural orchard of 5 acres, the production may run into the tons. With such figures, how then is it possible not to get rich? The better news is that it is easy to produce lots of budded plantlets in order to hit the jackpot. This may be done by carrying out budding in the backyard, or better still, on the farm if the plan is for a large scale business. Of course there are other methods of vegetative propagation to multiply true-to-type plants such as grafting or marcotting. It is also very easy to use cuttings to start new plants but the problem is that many varieties have a disappointingly low percentage of success.
However, the use of budding in durians is a bright light as it is one of the better established practices that is certain to provide more than 90 per cent success rate, create a lot of jobs and fatten bank accounts. If durians taste so good, which Sabahans can attest to, and fetch such good prices, then why not get cracking…NOW!The following attachments are pictorial representations that show clearly the steps to go about starting and completing a budding process. The rest of the process, such as waltzing to the bank, is really up to you. Good luck folks!The above writer may be reached at: onggrow@yahoo.com
