Agroforestry Venture : An Alternative for Sungei Maong Community

Sungai Maong is situated in Machan, a sub-district of Kanowit, between 50 and 60 kilometers from Sibu. Community agroforestry was first initiated in 1998. The programme involves some 20 families from 4 longhouses in planting tree. Over the last 5 years over 20,000 trees and several hundreds of rattan vines have been planted and grown successfully in their respective farmland. The species include various kinds of local fruits such as durain, dabai (black date), kakus, keranji, sibau, empelan, lengsat, temedak (jack fruit), mak, esau, isu, rangil, several types of timber and legume trees, and a large numbers of rubbers, which could be treated as a cash crop or timber species.

To date there are 8 families continued with tree planting and a total of 6000 were planted in 2002.

Three families were engaged in gardening with the method of the Sloping Agricultural Land Technology (SALT, developed by the Baptist Rural Life Center of the Philippines). However,only one family got the plot fully established amounting to about one acre. The family modified the technology to suit their needs and local conditions. They are planting rice for the 2nd year at the plot. If this technology is successful, the farmer could reduce the need for traditional rotation farming (swidden agriculture) of slash and burn.