Yesterday, was my first time serious studying of the pineaple plant. I made a visit to the Malaysian Pineaple Industry Board Hq (MPB) at Bandar Baru Uda, with three friends. Over the next three years, I hope I could explore the possibilities to introduce three main agriculture commodities to the State, namely: banana, pineaple and cattle. This is part of my thinking to ensure Sarawak would be an Advanced Agro-Industry State and as well as to diversified our agro-industry base. There we we brief by the Director General (DG) whom by coincincidence was my former varsity mate and also a Botanist a me. In Peninsula Malaysia, Pineaple is most grown in peat area in Johor. There are about 8,000 hectares under Commercial Estates and 7,000 hectares under smallholders establishment.
(2) Over the years, the MPIB had collected about 35 pineaple germplasm world wide and had made some break through in the better yield and fruit quality. Josephine, Moris, Gandul, etc are among the popular varieties especially for Fresh Fruit supplies.
(3) Basically, pineaple need good drainage and irrigation system. Water Table about 2-2.5 feet is required. The soil Bulk Density, equivalent to the oil palm on peat is required. Thus, the drainage and soil preparation is comparable to the oil palm establishment, with more preparation needed especially to clear all the stump and woody debris either for mechanization and higher density planting purposes. Water Table and weed control are critical in pineaple estate development.
(4) Based on current price, RM20,000/ha is needed for the first estate establishment. Ideally, both farm drains and roads should be constructed at 50-100 meters distance. Fertilizer requirement is considered much lesser then oil palm, where a forecast of 1.00 Mt/ha/yr is needed. Two to three times fertilizer application is needed for good growth. The total life-cycle is 14-18 months, with planting density of 45,000 crowns/ha, thus producing about 45,000 fruits/ha/cycle. Average weight per fruit is between 1.2-2.0kg/fruit for the good grade.
(5) Botanically, pineaple fruit is made of probably tens of fruitlets. At the young fruiting stages, one could observes that each fruits will bear small flowering. Bees and flies are the main polination agent for pineaple. Thus, ecologically, pineaple area, I would guess is a good area to breed honey bees and swiftlets.
(6) For every pineaple plant, 60 percent of the plant constitute of the leafy and shoft stem. Another 40 percent is the fruit. Under current practice, upon harvesting and as well as upon collection of matured suckers for replanting, the pineaples are killed by weedicide spray and later burn. Meaning, 60 percent of the crops are turn into ash. What a waste!
(7) In the processing industry, only 20 percent of the pineaple fruits are turn into primary canning products. Thus 80 percent has to be treated as by-products if not a waste. Thus, as an overall, only eight (8) percent of the whole pineaple plant is consumed as primary product.
(8) Thanks to the problem of higher production cost and poor market price of the pineaple. The scientists at MPIB had to thinks and work harder.
(9) The industrial waste has been used as feed meal to ruminant as well as application for other industry particularly the veneger and ethanol production. Recently, they had discovered the usage of pineaple leaves and stems as cattle feed. Grinding and fermenting of the leaves and stems into sillage produce protein content of 10-14 percent. This is almost ideal of the 15-17 percent requirement of the cattle feed. It was discovered that 10 Kg of sillage would yield 1.0 kg of meat. A cattle need about 10 kg of sillage/day to give 1.0 kg of beef. This achievemenbt is considered excellent as compared to 0.65-1.0kg/day beef turnover of the Industrial Standard.
(10) Silage production cost using pineapple leaves and stems is estimated at RM0.45/kg (at free leaves and stem cost). Just imagine, if the charge of say RM0.10/kg of farm waste is impose, definitely the farmers would make at least RM3,600/ha/cycle or RM2,400/ha/year. (10) Based on such achievement, taking the average weight of the pineapple fruit of 1.5Kg/fruits, thus, there is a potential of eight (8) Kg of leafy and stem waste for every plants. On per hectares basis there would be 360,000 kg (45,000 plants x 8.0 Kg) of farm waste could be generated for a plant-cycle. Since the conversion of silage is almost 1:1, thus, a hectares of pineapple could feed about 3,600 heads of cattle/day. Thus, 100 ha of pineapple would be able to support about 1,000 heads of cattle.
(11) Processing of pineapple due to the large quantity of wastage would not yield good income to the farmers. At most, the mill would buy at RM0.40-0.50/fruits which gives a farm Income of RM18,000-20,000/ha/cycle or equivalent to RM12,000-14,000/ha/yr which is equivalent to the oil palm return. But due to much less work involve in the oil palm industry, therefore, pineapple farming is gaining a loosing momentum. But again the wastage would be a good source of silage production as the left over pulp would be a good source of sugar for the fermentation purpose in the silage development.
(12) Nonetheless, based on first cycle Development Cost of RM20,000/ha and Reestablishment and Maintenance of RM5,000-7,500/ha/cycle, the Farm breakeven cost recovery is achievable in the second cycle ie after three years of the Project Life.
(13) Simple processing facility with the input of 5-10Mt/day of wet weight fruits would cost RM5.00-7.00 million. This mill size would then need an area of 400 ha of estate. With the potential breakeven after three years of operation, both the production and processing industry would be feasible on a scale of 400 ha of production estate. And this again would be able to support about 4,000 heads of cattle on feedlots basis.
(15) Cattle fattening would normally cost, about RM2,000-2,500/heads for the initial purchase, and later RM400-500.00 to raise to the 300-350 Kg live weight. Thus total production cost would be around RM2,500-3,000/head. With prospect of beef price of RM20.00/kg and carcase of RM5.00/kg, thus with the yield of 150 kg of beef and 150 kg of carcase per head, therefore the overall Gross Profit/head would be RM250-300/heads. Nonetheless, the cattle dung are good source of organic fertilizer which yield better pieapple fruit quality and as well as to reduce fertilizer cost. Such, the volume matters.
(16) Integration with the feedlots cattle, as well as the possibilities of honey bees and swiftlet farming, the industry could be well package as a Sustainable Income Growth Development Model for our rural folks.
(17) This is the point that I would like to ponder to the details and hopefully with Allah blessing, one day we would make it.
Johor Baharu, Johor, Malaysia
1 Feb., 2011
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