Preserve herbs, researchers told

KUALA LUMPUR: Agriculture Minister Datuk Amar Dr Sulaiman Daud said urgent measures are required to prevent the country’s herbal heritage from extinction.

Towards this end, researchers could help by making an inventory list and regularly monitoring the herbal stock, particularly those of commercial value, he said.

Sulaiman said: "We do not want a situation whereby we can no longer export our herbs or herbal products because they have fallen under the endangered or extinct list of the Convention of International Trade in Endangered Species of wild fauna and flora."

Malaysia is one of the signatory of the convention otherwise known by the acronym Cities. The Malaysian herbal products industry was estimated at RM2 billion with most of the products imported from Indonesia and China.

Most of Malaysian herbs could be cultivated but about 15 per cent could only grow in the rainforest, he said when opening an international conference and exhibition on herbs and the International Muslim Trade Conference at the Mines Exhibition Centre here.

He said the Third National Agricultural Policy has identified agroforestry as most suitable system for herb cultivation within fruit orchards, rubber and oil palm holdings or in commercial forest plantation.

Prority would be given to horticulture research in the growing of herbal plants with emphasis on organic farming.

Ironically, Malaysia still relied on foreign imports of raw material and herbal products for the local industry although it is one of the 12 biodiversity rich countries in the world, Sulaiman said.

"It does not seem right for example that the juice from Mengkudu (Morinda citrifolia) has to be imported and retailed at RM150 to RM200 per litre whilst the same product, produced locally can be easily obtained for less than RM50 per litre or even almost free if the fresh fruit juice is home made from fruits obtained in the back yard;" he said.

The government, he said, would continue providing strong support for the development of the herbal industry, aiming to make Malaysia the leader in the herb and herbal agro-technology.

As such it could reverse the trend of Malaysia importing herbal products to exporting them worrldwide, he said.

He said the government would actively promote large scale agro-forestry based on mechanised and automated system as well as organised group farming by smallholders to ensure sustained supply of quality raw materials needed for high quality herbal products. – Bernama

Source : Borneo Post, 10.11.99