Yahya Bin Awang Faculty of Agriculture, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang MALAYSIA

Transcription

1 Yahya Bin Awang Faculty of Agriculture, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang MALAYSIA Syed Abdul Rahman S.A.R Al Mashoor Agro-Park, Tanah Rata Cameron Highland, Pahang, MALAYSIA

2 Introduction: Cameron Highlands Experience a conducive all-yearround growing environment. Major growing area for tea, and temperate and subtropical vegetable and floricultural crops. All-year-round, but the peak is around March to September. Most crops are grown under high plastic-roofed greenhouses, mainly serve as rainshelter.

3 Weather conditions Max o C Min o C h/day Max and Min Temperatures Sunshine hours 2700 mm/yr 80-85% Humidity Precipitation

4 A typical agricultural landscape of Cameron Highlands

5 Economics of Strawberry in Cameron Highlands, Malaysia Cameron Highlands - A popular agro-tourism and holiday destination( ca. 900,000 tourists/yr). Strawberry: is a unique product of Cameron Highlands a must buy item Cultivated area of strawberry: about 30 ha Production value of fresh strawberries: RM 70 mil. (USD 21.9mil)/yr

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7 Production system Land in Cameron Highlands is characterized as hilly with limited readily farmable area. Most farms are established on terraces of the foot hills. Receive a constant competition with other developmental sectors Maximizing land-use efficiency then become a natural logical choice. 100% of strawberries in Cameron Highlands are grown on vertical structures Established under opened-sided high plastic-roofed greenhouses /rainshelters, Allow effective natural ventilation and constant visit of pollinators.

8 Vertical Growing System A-frame (13-17 plts/m 2 ) A combination of A-frame and hanging basket (17-22 plts/m 2 ) 100% Vertical (18-22 plts/m 2 )

9 Crop establishment on A-frame The runners, established in plastic (5 cm diam.) are planted in 30 cm x 100 cm growing bags filled with coir dust. Four plants/growing bag. 3 or 4 tiers/structure with planting densities between plants/m 2. Plants are grown under natural sunlight without any supplementary lighting. There is no trace of vernalisation of the runner plants being adopted.

10 Nutrient feeding and irrigation The plants are fed by using liquid feeding, with a complete nutrient solution through a drip irrigation system. The delivery of plant nutrient begins after a few days of planting, starting with a complete nutrient solution Initial nutrient strength (EC) of about 1.0 ms/cm and the final EC of the nutrient solution is ca. 1.5 ms/cm. Irrigation volume - approx. 160 ml/plant on sunny days and a half of that volume (80 ml) on cloudy or rainy days The media is flushed one a week to avoid salinity development.

11 Variety and Fruit Yield Varieties: Camarosa, Chandler, Strawberry Festival, Sweet Charlie, Fresno, Tioga and Ichigo. Popular varieties: Camarosa, Chandler and Strawberry Festival - associated with fruit quality June bearing variety - but under continuously conducive environment, the fruits are produced AYR Camarosa - large and firm fruits and has superior shelf-life and handling characteristics with good flavor. Strawberry Festival - similar properties as Camarosa ; fuits are firm and excellent flavour. Chandler - intense flavour but it has a shorter keeping duration compared to other popular varieties.

12 Main characteristics of major strawberry varieties grown in Cameron Highlands Characteristics Camarosa Chandler Festival Brix Fruit shelflife 6-7 days 4 days 5 days Fruit yield (kg/plant) Economic life (years) 1 st Year: st Year: st year: nd Year: nd Year: nd Year: rd Year: > rd Year: > rd Year: > Source: Mohd Ridzuan, M.S. et al. (2011) Average fruit yield: kg/plant/year (S.A. Rahman & Kodimani, unpublished)

13 Discussion Field grown strawberries are normally established on beds (70 cm W, m apart) to allow farm operations. Plant spacing: cm apart and cm within a row, population range from 39,520 54,340 plants/ha (or plants/m 2 ) (Santos et al., 2013). Under protected culture maximize space utilization Vertical cultivation (in polyethylene /growing bags; plastic pots; trough) higher density (13-17 plants/frame) Higher density gave remarkable higher yields

14 Strawberry variety Tioga and Cruz grown vertically a density of 37.5 plant/m 2 produced marketable yield up to 2.7 kg/m 2 (Ozeker et al. (1999) High yield under high density is associated with high fruit number. Within limit, fruit size (fruit weight) generally is not affected. (Paranjpe et al. (2008) Linear relationship between plant density and total season marketable yield for Sweet Charlie strawberry grown in a passively ventilated greenhouse (Paranjpe et al., 2008)

15 Fruit Quality - Light related problems Uneven light distribution Plants lower tiers intercept less light. Fruits form in the lower plants were small, malformed, facing high risk of disease infection and inconsistent colour. (Van Looy and Aerts, 1982) Fruits develop under low irradiance will have low sugar with high acid contents. (Awang and Atherton, 1995) The negative impact of multi-tiers cultivation on yield and quality could be alleviated via supplementary lighting. providing more uniform of light distribution increasing light intensity extending lighting hours

16 CONCLUSION Production of strawberry on A-frame structures in Cameron Highlands is a highly viable business venture. Relatively high price, range between RM20-30 (USD )/kg Demand for the fruits by the tourists is the driving factor Financial analysis : Internal rate of return (IRR): 29.3% Benefit:cost ratio: 1.67 Payback period: 3 years. Production cost: RM8.84 (USD2.76)/kg. (Mohd Ridzuan et al., 2011) Further improvement on the cultivation can be made via continuous R & D efforts, e.g. Integrating supplementary lighting Vernalisation of plant materials

17 With Knowledge We Serve Thank You 17