MAHA 2008

Well the Malaysian Agriculture, Horticulture and Agro-Tourism (M.A.H.A. ) 2008 is very soon that will be held 11-23 August 2008. I have been assigned to become a judge in the fruit category. This means that I have to go to see all participated farms around the country in order to propose which are the best farms. The farms included guava, citrus, dragon fruits, salak, starfruits, mango etc. It is hefty alot of work organised by the Department of Agriculture as the secretariat.


I chose to go Sabah this time where I went to see citrus in Tawau, salak and dragon fruits in Sandakan and guava in Tenom.
View from Crocker Range

Most of the farms were very coordinated and managed well.

Coconut milk is sold everywhere in Sabah

Beautiful weed/legume I found

Dragon fruits flowering prosufely

Packaging of dragon fruits in boxes


Dragon fruits flowering



Dragon fruit plantation in Beluran area


Dragon fruits with heavy flowering


Salak plant and fruits in Sandakan area (below)



I enjoyed my trip from Tawau to Sandakan then go to Kota Kinabalu and later to Tenom by road.

Technical Posters on Dragon Fruits

I have just came back from Sabah, East Malaysia. I was attending the 18th Malaysian Society of Plant Physiology (MSPP) Conference at Le Meredian Hotel. It was officiated by the Sabah State Agrciculture Minister. I saw a lot of new and old faces get back together. There are various topics discussed from global warming to dragon fruits planting. The meeting was diverse and many new ideas discussed. There was a post tour conference to Kinabalu Parks and Poring which I had been.

I had the opportunity to give an oral presentaion on dragon fruits entitles "Challenges in Dragon Fruits Growing in Malaysia". There were 3 other papers related to dragon fruits. I have managed to include two posters here.