Friday Miracles at the Farm

At the eco-farm last Friday, i.e. 25/1/08, I witnessed two miracles of nature before my eyes.

Firstly, around 8.10 pm Daisy, our four years old cat, gave birth to two kittens which we decided to name them as Einstein and Inul on the second day.

I felt privileged by Daisy allowing me to photograph and video the whole episode. Below are snapshots of the bigger family.



Einstein, the male is at the top of the pix, looking rather dark and black. Inul, the female is of lighter complexion but nonetheless of very mixed colours.

So now its , "Four is Enough". After two days old the new additions are taken to a family box for photo taking. Macy Grey is happy and feels comfortable , whilst Daisy appears very caring.

Second Miracle
Secondly, the oil palm tree with identification tag no: J2/ZD-31, showed inflorescences after about 20 months old ,when it was just a minute seedling with a radicle and a shoot. This species is of Golden Hope 500 series and was imported from Tawau, Sabah.

This seedling was planted in-situ fresh from our on site nursery sometimes in December, 2006.

A longer view of the flowering oil palm tree. Note the landscaping plants being dug out around it

as intermediate harvests.

Close up view of the inflorescences. Note the distance from ground level.

2008 and We have only just begun.

A small 'Lumok'tree . A very mature plant of the species can reach 30 m high.

Just before the 2007 ends, I have cleared the balance of land in our eco-farm for additional oil palm cultivation this coming new year 2008.

Hopefully we go into opening up another 15 acres of adjacent land during the 2008 calender.

But today I could harvest about thirty numbers of 'Lumok'fruits , also referred to' Terap' in Malay.
Scientifically referred to as Artocarpus lowii , the 'Lumok'tree is a seasonal fruit that grows wildly in our farm. In Bintulu it bears fruits during the months of November till December without fail. For this reason a small vegetation island has been preserved during the clearing of the balance of 4 acres of land mentioned earlier to allow for the survival of Lumok trees grown by earlier settlers here. It is auspicious that we start the new year with a bountiful harvest of 'Lumok'fruits.

Today's Oil Palm Price

As at point of writing, the price of oil palm at Mill Gate , where farmers send their fresh fruit bunches for Bintulu area is RM 604/tonne ( see above).

The price today has doubled since more than one and a half year ago! This escalating price is good news for the oil palm farmer. As a general rule of thumb, the oil palm farmer will typically sell his fresh fruit bunches (FFB) at 1/5 of the quoted crude oil palm price (CPO) which stands at RM 3000/tonne today.

What are the chances that it will stay favourably in the near future?

Judging from recent reports by Moody's Investors Servic, for 2008 the high demand and pricing will prevail for the following reasons:

1) increased consumption in emerging Chindian markets ( China and India )

2) demand for crude palm oil as bio fuel source ( e.g. Europe )

Besides ,I think market speculation on resource or commodity -based stock exchange counters due to palm oil enjoying evaluation as 'good assets' help prop up sentiments of oil palm as a prospective commodity investment.

All told, isn't these signs of positive economic redress for the Malaysian political economy? i.e.

increased income for the rural household.