Kota Kinabalu: Plantation companies must be convinced that cattle do no harm to oil palm yields but rather benefit them, said Dr Azid @ Douglas Kabul, who introduced cattle integration at the Sawit Kinabalu Group.
“Cattle will not affect oil palm productivity and can bring additional income, on top of strengthening the image of plantation companies in tackling global warming,” he said at the recent Livestock Industry Convention on Empowering Farmers and Driving the Industry Forum 2026 at Wisma Pertanian.
Dr AzidThe forum was held in conjunction with the Sabah Veterinary Services Department’s 50th anniversary.
He said palm oil is often labelled as an environmental problem, especially in Europe and integration helps planters improve that image.
“Regenerative agriculture requires us to maintain soil fertility and the presence of cattle under oil palm helps conserve it,” he said.
He said biodiversity in the oil palm ecosystem is also maintained, which contributes to carbon sequestration. Cattle eating palm fronds also forms the circular economy loop behind what he called regenerative palm oil.
“Integrating cattle under oil palm does not affect palm productivity if it is done systematically,” said Dr Azid who joined Sawit Kinabalu Group in 2005 as its only non-planter and later retired from the group.
His expertise on the subject has taken him as far as Indonesia, where he was invited to speak on the system at the I-CoP cattle and oil palm congress in Pekanbaru, Riau.
He was also invited to speak about integration, regenerative agriculture and the circular economy at the Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB) International Palm Oil Congress and Exhibition last year.
In Sabah, more than half of its oil palm area are owned by big plantation companies, while smallholders own about 35 per cent of the State’s oil palm area.
He said big companies have the money and technology but need targeted incentives before they enter livestock integration.
“We spent more than RM40 million to buy breeders and there was no incentive from the government,” he said, referring to his time at the Sawit Kinabalu Group.
“Then when we explored palm fronds as feed, that was another RM50 million investment and there was no incentive,” he said.
He pointed out that oil palm is one of the heaviest taxed industries.
“Corporate tax is very much a federal issue and so is the MPOB cess, but the State could consider the sales tax,” he said.
He said big companies in the field could get some consideration on that tax.
“I call it a zero-land ruminant feeding solution because we do not need land,” he said.
The group converted palm fronds into a total mixed ration, with palm kernel cake and corn added. In a two-year study, the ration produced an average daily weight gain of almost 1.8 kg and a feed conversion ratio of about four, against a standard range of six to 10.
“From about 5,000 multipliers, we reached almost 10,000 breeders by the time I retired, without disturbing oil palm productivity,” he said.
He said the Group kept weekly, monthly, quarterly and annual reports on births, deaths and herd growth.
“We do a lot of launching, but there is little follow-up,” he said.
He said this is a main reason large estates have paid little attention to the system.
He spoke about Indonesia’s oil palm cattle system, known as Siska, which brings together planters, farmers, government, researchers and educational institutions.
“Instead of silo thinking, they work together,” he said.
“Sabah should be able to achieve that 25 per cent self-sufficiency ratio in no time with the involvement of big players,” he said, adding that this depends on the right incentives.
