Cocoa Growing Prospects in Malayasia
pp. 56-57 · Read in the full issue
Malayasia
A FORMER Professor of Botany at the Imperial College of Tropical Agri culture, Dr. E. E. Cheesman, has re cently completed a 10,000 mile tour of Malaya, Sarawak, and North Borneo for the Secretary of State for the Colonies.
Dr. Cheesman was investigating the possibilities of cocoa-growing in these countries. In a report, printed in the October “Crown Colonist,” he states that Malaya could eventually produce 100,000 tons of cocoa a year but that no consid erable output could be expected for at least 10 years even if the many difficulties at present in the way could be overcome.
Sarawak might produce 10,000 tons a y ear — a small contribution to world re quirements but a substantial addition to the Colony’s resources.
North Borneo’s potentialities would lie somewhere between those of Malaya and Sarawak, but much experimental work over a period of years would be required before its contribution could be assessed.
There appeared no likelihood that cocoa would become a major crop in Malaya, rivalling either West African production or the local success of rubber. What could be expected was that, on a relatively small and carefully selected acreage, it could fulfil a useful function by helping to diversify the country’s agricultural pro ducts.
The major pests and diseases afflicting cocoa elsewhere are not recorded in Malaya.
Cocoa requires shade when young. One of the questions which only experiment can answer is whether rubber trees them selves, grown under the system of “avenue planting,” would give the necessary shade.
The estate companies in Malaya are interested in cocoa as a possible adjunct to rubber, wishing to diversify their in terests as some insurance against the risks of dependence on a single market.
Only a small fraction of existing rubber land, however, is suitable for cocoa, inter planted or not; and Dr. Cheesman regards any attempt to establish cocoa under old rubber as foredoomed to failure, or at best to only partial success.
He urges experiments on clear-felled land with bananas and other suitable plants for ground shade. The banana can be regarded as a good indicator plant for the success of cocoa. If the planter finds that he cannot establish a good healthy stand of banana plants to pro tect his young cocoa, he may as well save himself the expense of planting the cocoa.
The report stresses the need for careful experiment, and advocates the establish ment of a central breeding station in Malaya. Scarcity of planting material, however, will, by itself, prevent any im mediate development of the industry.
The five-years-old daughter of the Rev. V. H. Gough-Sherwin, of Port Elliot, South Australia, was struck and killed by a motor-car, in Victor Harbour, on November 12. The child ran unexpectedly from the footpath. The Rev. Mr. Gough- Sherwin was at one time a missionary in New Guinea, and he served there as a chaplain during the war.