Portrait of Daiman bin Peron leader of the indigenous Mah Meri village of Sungai Judah in his 3 acre oil/ 1.2 hectare palm farm.
"I raise oil palm to support my family. The yield from oil palm is three times better than from coffee or coconuts. Before, because of commodity prices, even though he had a high yield from coffee and coconuts, there was little income.
âOil palm is hardy. It can live in any soil and needs little chemical fertilizer. You only have to work hard twice a month to harvest itâ. âCoffeeâ, he added, âneeds three years before you can begin harvesting it but oil palm can be harvested 1 ½ years after plantingâ.
Carey Island was converted decades ago to agriculture with 70% of the island occupied by the oil palm giant Sime Darby, which was founded here in 1910, as a rubber plantation, later converted to more profitable oil palm. Sime Darby owns 90% of the land on the island. The land, being close to the Straits of Malacca, used to be scrubland and mangroves.
Selangor, Malaysia
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