| Azlan Othman |
MONKEYS preying on local fruit trees will be a menace of the past and Durian trees producing fruits all-year-round a reality in near future if the Chinese Academy of Tropical Agricultural Services (CATAS) heed to a call made by Bruneians for help.
Assistance in technology to produce all-year-round ‘Tarap’ and juice energy from sugarcane were some of the other requests made by a group of Brunei businessmen and agricultural entrepreneurs during a dialogue session with a visiting delegation from CATAS held at the Brunei Industrial Development Authority (BINA) building in Beribi yesterday.
Present at the event was the Deputy Permanent Secretary (IT, E-Government and Industry) at the Prime Minister’s Office, Muhammad Norshafiee bin Dato Paduka Haji Abdul Jalil who highlighted potential areas of cooperation between Brunei and China like in capacity building, joint agricultural research and networking with local counterparts.
The Brunei delegation said agriculture productivity is low in the sultanate and the expertise of CATAS could help.
Jiang Changsun, Director of International Cooperation Division cum Director of Research Centre for China Tropical Agricultural Going Global of CATAS, said they seek more cooperation with Brunei’s agriculture authorities and look forward to meet officials at the Ministry of Primary Resources and Tourism and the Department of Agriculture and Agrifood today.
The Deputy Permanent Secretary (IT, E-Government and Industry) at the Prime Minister’s Office, Muhammad Norshafiee bin Dato Paduka Haji Abdul Jalil (centre) in the dialogue session with CATAS officials. – AZLAN OTHMAN
The Chinese delegation will also visit the Hua Ho agricultural farm and Haqasya farm today.
Meanwhile, Dr Haji Abdul Latif bin Haji Chuchu, President of the Federation of Brunei Malay Entrepreneur, said the delegation is here specifically to explore opportunities in agriculture technology and science and not for business. CATAS was established in 1954 and has 14 institutes with a land area of 4,000 hectares and 4,600 staff under the administration of the Ministry of Agriculture of People‘s Republic of China to pursue research and development activities in the field of tropical agriculture.
Their activities include tropical agricultural innovation, human resource development, international cooperation, achievement transformation and scientific and technical services.
New technology in tropical agriculture includes rubber cultivation and tapping technology and disease-free sugarcane seedling technology. CATAS also conduct environment and plant protection programmes that include biological control strategy of coconut leaf beetle, processing technology for tropical crops whereby CATAS uses pineapple leaves, banana stalks to make fibre products.
CATAS has been providing consultation services to farmers and agro-enterprises on agronomic techniques and pest control of rubber, cassava, banana, tropical fruit trees since 2010 as well as international training courses on tropical agriculture for developing countries.
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