Friday, July 30, 2010

My Talk

I had given a talk on dragon fruits. The audience was good and recepetive. Many questions asked of how to survive dragon planting in Malaysia. My response was that Dragon cultivation is not a "Touch and Go" farming, the grower should vision themselves where he/she is going to bring the business.
My abstract is as below;


Abstract



Malaysia is blessed with good tropical climate. Many crops can be grown like rubber, oil palm, paddy and cocoa besides fruits. One of the recent newcomers in the Malaysian fruit industry is dragon fruits. After many trials and errors, dragon cultivation has made its niche in the Malaysian fruit industry. Although its investment is lucrative however, there are many challenges lie ahead to enhance its production.
This paper will discuss several issues pertaining to the industry and strategies to be taken in order to move forward. Accredited planting materials and resistant varieties are the major limiting factors that hinder its future expansion and sustainability. The dragon fruit cultivation is this country could again be profitable and rewarding if good agro-management measures are sought properly.