Rahman in his oil palm estate.
IMAGINE trying your hand at planting crops or livestock farming or another agro-related venture but failing almost every time.
Many would just give up, but not 69-year-old Abd Rahman Mohd Nooh, an oil palm smallholder based in Sabah’s Lahad Datu district.
The father of four had his Tilapia fish farm fail and his goats stolen and others dying from disease. Then, over 1,600 ducks had to be sold and many were donated when the pandemic hit. There was also an unfortunate incident when a herd of wild elephants destroyed his coconut trees.
However, Rahman persisted and never stopped trying. Now he is doing quite well in the oil palm industry, working on 12ha of land.
“After retiring from a private company in the late ‘80s, I ventured into oil palm planting. I did not know anything about the industry except to plant the trees,” Rahman said at his estate recently.
He started working on opening up a piece of land previously used for the timber industry in 1989, and learnt the trade along the way.
He said as the years went by, government policies changed and there were more calls for industry players to get certified over sustainable practices.
For these certifications such as the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) and the Malaysian Sustainable Palm Oil (MSPO) Certification Scheme, there were criteria to fulfill and money to pay.
Rahman said for sustainable planting, he tried adopting measures like rearing cattle within the plantation compound to act as natural “weeders” to cut down on the usage of pesticides.
“So far, this method is working. I managed to reduce the use of chemical pesticides by about 25%,” he said, adding the cattle dung could be used as fertiliser.
As to why he tried integrating other agricultural activities such as duck and fish rearing, he said it is so that he can diversify his income and have some sort of a backup if palm oil prices drop.
Rahman said prices of commodities have been unstable and that is why he cannot depend on just one source of income.
Unfortunately, his other ventures did not work out and he made losses along the way.
“I recently planted some 60 coconut trees but then a herd of elephants trampled on all of them. All my trees were destroyed. But it’s fine, I can try something else,” he said.
Rahman said at the age of almost 70, he is thinking of finally retiring and letting someone else take over his business.
He said tending to his oil palm plantaion, his cattle and other ventures takes up a lot of his energy and none of his four children are currently helping because they have jobs of their own.
“I have been trying to get one of them to take over my business, but so far, none seems interested.
“When I say I want to sell the estate, they tell me not to,” he said.
Rahman said he will work on his estate for as long as he has the strength, but when the time comes, he will have to choose to let it go.
“As for my nine head of cattle, some have been with me for 20 years and I don’t want to sell any if possible,” he said.
On RSPO and MSPO certification, he said that with the help of Sawit Kinabalu and other authorities, he managed to get the group certification for MSPO.
This helped Rahman get better prices for his oil palm fruits, among other benefits, and now, he is thinking whether to also try for the RSPO certification.
