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| Dragon fruit planting using single-pole technique |
The farm is about one and half hour drive from Kuala Lumpur, somewhere in Kalumpang, Selangor. This farm planted dragon fruits for about 40 acres .They used to plant dragon fruits one- foot apart using trellis system.The inter row distant was 6 feet. However, they could not make it because for about year the system could support the heavy branches of dragon fruits which was estimated about 40 to 60 kg per plant. They replanted the again using single-pole having four plants attached. It seems that this technique workable.
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| Discussion with the farmer Mr.Lim about foliar fertilizers and fungicides used. |
Fertilization was done both using granular (6:10:30 or 13:10:20) and foliar.Granular fertilizer was given 10-20 gram for every two week for every pole and foliar was given biweekly plus with Mancozeb. The rate of foliar spray was 1.5 L foliar fertilizer plus 1 pack of Mancozeb (1 kg) to 100 litres of water. The farmer gave very little fertilizer but very frequent. Disease surveillance was done daily scouted by 2 workers.
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| Dragon fruits with agarwood (5 feet tall 2 years old) |
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| Dragon fruits with pineapple |
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| Newspaper cutting showing price of agarwood grades -Grade A (MYR 25,000 about USD 7,5000 per kg) |
The farmers integrated the farm with agarwood with planting distant 5 ft X 5 ft. In Malay agarwood is gaharu. This farmer planted 20,000 agarwood plants intercropped with dragon fruits.Besides, he also intercropped part of the dargon fruits areas with pineapple.
With his initiative, the farmer also built 20 X 100 ft. swiftlet bird house four storey high. Swiftlet industry is booming in Malaysia with govenment support. The bird house is only eight month old and managed to harvest swiftlet nest, however the investment is very high.When the bird house has stabled, the farmer can shake legs. Swiflet nest price at MYR 3,000 (USD 1000) per kg (raw) and MYR 10,000 (USD2500) (cleaned)
Note: USD1=MYR 3.(MYR stands for Malaysian Ringgit)
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| A four-storey high swiftlet bird house at the back |
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For more infomation regarding to this please feel free to contact me at zainudinhaji@gmail.com .
