Page 252 - The Guide To Sarawak

250 AGRICULTURE
Coconuts
Coconuts in Sarawak
are usually grown by smallholders for retail sale, with 10,000 rural families involved in their cultivation. Orchards average around
2 hectares and yield varies from 3,000 to 8,000 nuts per hectare. Over 21,000 hectares are planted, mostly in drainage and irrigation (D&I) scheme areas with drainage and water control structures in place. Visitors are welcome at the Asas Fajar Coconut Farm near Kuching – see listings.
Other Fruits
In the northern highlands around Ba’Kelalan, apples are becoming an important cash crop. Around Sibu, superb pomelos and dragon fruits are abundant. High quality papayas, mangoes and jackfruit are widely grown, and other interesting fruits include: jambu (a pink or green fruit
with a flavour similar to apples); rambutan, langsat and mata kucing (cats- eye fruit), all members
of the lychee family; the cannonball-like embawang; tampui (a kind of mini- mangosteen); and engkala (a relative of the avocado).
How to Enjoy Fruit Safely!
There are certain fruit
trees you should not sit under. The most obvious are durians, 50 metres
high and covered in sharp spines; coconuts, which are harder than most people’s heads; and jackfruit, which
Apples growing in Ba’Kelalan. The climate of this highland region is well suited to the growing of temperate fruits.
The embawang or jungle mango. This large, sour fruit
is widely enjoyed as a salad with salted fish and spicy The engkala fruit (Litsea garciae). Its white pulp has a sambal. creamy texture and a delicious, avocado-like taste