Agriculture in the Malaysian Region

Chapter 10. Intensive Market-gardening and Livestock-rearing

Intensive Market-gardening and Livestock-rearing 211 211 chapter 10 Intensive Market-gardening and Livestock-rearing If the cultivation of oil palm represents the least intensive form of permanent agriculture in the region, the growing of vegetables and the raising of livestock, mainly pigs and poultry, represents the most intensive type. On a number of farms, the growing of table fruits — durian, rambutan, star fruit (carambola), papaya, citrus and many others — is a less intensive subsidiary activity, though orchards may also be independent from market-gardening and pig-rearing. While Malay-owned orchards, as distinct from the array of fruit-trees found around village houses do exist, many orchards are in the hands of Chinese as is market-gardening, while pig-rearing is entirely so for religious reasons. The rearing of other livestock , mainly buffaloes and milch cows, is carried on to a minor degree by Indians and local dairy companies, and this usually involves stallfeeding of feedstuffs brought in. This occupational separation was wellillustrated in Singapore, where Malays made up only 0.2 per cent of the agricultural work-force, though comprising 15 per cent of the population, with Chinese accounting for 99 per cent, the rest were Indians (Y.K. Wong 1975). The location of lowland market-gardening and intensive livestockrearing followed the classical model of von Thünen in being located on the urban fringe. In addition, the existence of accessible cool uplands has led to the development of areas specializing in the production of temperate vegetables, mainly Brassicas, as at Cameron Highlands, in Pahang which is accessible to Perak and within reasonable distance of the major urban centres of the western Peninsula. The other main area for the production of temperate vegetables is in Kundasang area of Sabah’s Kinabalu massif, supplying mainly the state capital at Kota Kinabalu. 212 Agriculture in the Malaysian Region Favoured sites are those with an adequate water supply at all seasons — a prime requirement — and non-flooding alluvial land. However, the latter is not a key requirement, and gardens can be found on practically every soil type, even on the initially almost sterile sands left exposed by tin-mining. A basic objective in farm operations is the deliberate creation of optimal soil conditions, and this is achieved by large inputs of organic matter and labour. A further basic characteristic was that production was generally unspecialized. In Singapore, for example, only 17 per cent of farms undertook the raising of a single product. All the rest were mixed. The various combinations are exemplified in Table 10.1. table 10.1 Types, Number, Estimated Area and Average Size of Intensive Farms in Singapore, 1973 Number % Area % Av. size (ha) (ha) Horticulture 1,733 11.0 1,194.0 10.1 0.69 Poultry 300 1.9 145.8 1.2 0.49 Livestock 512 3.2 168.5 1.4 0.33 Fishery 132 0.8 82.5 0.7 0.62 Horticulture and poultry 3,062 19.5 2,224.9 18.8 0.73 Horticulture and livestock 1,508 9.6 1,035.0 8.8 0.69 Horticulture and fishery 288 1.8 282.4 2.4 0.98 Poultry and livestock 598 3.8 242.8 2.1 0.41 Poultry and fishery 24 0.2 17.4 0.2 0.72 Livestock and fishery 36 0.2 28.5 0.3 0.79 Horticulture, poultry and livestock 5,913 37.6 4,419.1 37.3 0.75 Horticulture, poultry and fishery 419 2.7 449.2 3.8 1.07 Horticulture, livestock and fishery 235 1.5 277.1 2.3 1.18 Poultry, livestock and fishery 34 0.2 29.1 0.2 0.82 Horticulture, poultry, livestock 952 6.0 1,236.4 10.4 1.30 and fishery 15,741 100.0 11,832.7 100.0 Av. 0.75 Source: Y.K. Wong, 1975. The ecological reasons for some of the crop or crop/livestock combinations are quite obvious. The waste produced by the livestock, for example chicken manure, was used either wholly or partly to fertilize the soil to raise vegetables, fruit trees and ornamental plants or even incorporated into mixtures to feed other animals. The few poultry cum crocodile farms in Singapore, total crocodiles, 6,900 in 1973, were particularly energy- Intensive Market-gardening and Livestock-rearing 213 conserving in that dead chickens were fed to the crocodiles...