SLDB: Oil palm plantations can still boost earnings

KENINGAU: Sabah Land Development Board (SLDB) believes oil palm plantations can still boost their earnings, despite increased cost of goods, with an efficient management system.

General manager of SLDB, Jhuvarri Majid said reducing management costs will also help to increase production and further improve earnings. The cost of fertiliser and pesticide used in the plantations have gone up due to the rise in commodity prices which has inevitably caused management costs to escalate too.

“SLDB plantation managers must therefore be more efficient when working out the management cost,” he told New Sabah Times after presenting dividends to the co-operative, Koperasi Sawit Kandang Besar LKTNS Bingkor at the Perkasa Hotel here on Friday. Jhuvarri presented a cheque worth RM403,546.00 to the co-operative.

He said the dividends were made possible because the SLDB oil palm plantations in Bingkor were making profit. Meanwhile, SLDB will develop a 8,000-hectare area of the Sabah Forestry Department on a joint-venture basis. It will also embark seriously on rubber cultivation and jatropha plantation as stipulated in the Sabah Development Corridor (SDC). SLDB will initially develop an area of 2,000 hectares in Nabawan turning it into a Jatropha Research Centre.

Earlier, in his speech, Jhuvarri praised the management of SLDB in Bingkor and the co-operative for overcoming numerous challenges to reap in profit from the plantations.

Bingkor manager of SLDB, Jekri Mohd Jinin said they succeeded in increasing production over the last three years from only 810.41 (4.20) metric tonnes per hectare in 2004 to 4182.79 (21.8) metric tonnes per hectare last year. This year it targets to produce 4600 (24) metric tonnes per hectare of oil palm.