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Comment by 私貨珍藏 on April 24, 2015 at 3:24pm

Kopi Tenom fest kicks off

TENOM: Its aroma, fragrant. Its taste, enticing. That is the general experience when visiting the Yit Foh Coffee Factory, here.

The factory is one of the producers of Kopi Tenom. It has been operating since 1960 and is still employing the traditional way of producing coffee grounds: by roasting the beans over woodfire.

"This method is best in bringing out the true aroma of coffee," said its factory manager, Alex Yong, when met at the factory in Kampung Chintamata, some 3km away from Tenom town.

Alex, who inherited the family business, opened up a new factory in 1993 and is now working at expanding the market for his products globally.

Making coffee starts with the process of sun drying coffee cherries for 14 days. After that, the outer layers of the dried cherries are hulled. It is then roasted from 7am to noon by a "coffee cook" while packing is done from 8am to 5pm.

Yong has 36 trained staff, including six "coffee cooks", capable of producing some 600 packets of coffee products daily.

Today, the company produces 10 coffee products that are marketed nationwide as well as in the neighbouring Brunei.

Besides providing local farmers income opportunities, Kopi Tenom has also helped familiarise Sabah in the way Cameron Highlands popularised Boh Tea.

Coffee is one of Tenom's most important agricultural produce, so much so that the district has been dubbed "Sabah's coffee capital".

To further promote it, a coffee festival is being held from today (Nov 12) until Friday (Nov 14).

The festival will culminate in an event this Friday where 4,000 people will simultaneously drink coffee, to break the current record of 3,068 people as stated in the Malaysian Book of Records.

The Tenom District Officer, Madiyem Layapan said there would also be an exhibition on Kopi Tenom at the event, with the participation of two major coffee chains.

"We would also be flying in six Microlight aircraft carrying the Kopi Tenom flag," he said.

The festival will also feature various tourist attractions in Tenom, known for its heavy influence of Murut culture, and the Kopi Tenom Beauty Pageant.

Comment by 私貨珍藏 on April 24, 2015 at 3:24pm

Tenom is today one of Sabah's most promising sites for agricultural development for meeting the country's produce needs.

The 2,238 sqkm area is located some 173km to the south of Kota Kinabalu and is bordering Keningau, Sipitang, Beaufort and the Kalimantan region of Indonesia.

Its MP Datuk Raimee Unggi represents 68,000 people, 70 per cent of them Murut. He believes that the district is an undiscovered goldmine of the agricultural industry and is determined to develop it.

（Tenom, Photo Credit: wikipedia）

"In Tenom, the main focus is to improve the economic standards among the villagers, as its crops and fruit products have a high commercial value," he said during a recent visit to the district.

He wants to create a farm produce collection centre in Tenom to collate and organise data on produce as well as generate better income for the locals.

Raimee who is also Tenom's Parliamentary Agriculture Development Council Chairman said the centre would be equipped with modern equipments, a packaging area and fresh produce storage. "We want our farmers to be given the best price for their quality produce," he said.

Among the farm produce with good market potential are bananas, avocado, guava and papaya. – Bernama，November 14, 2014

Comment by 私貨珍藏 on April 24, 2015 at 3:06pm

Ginger, A Boon For Tikolod Folks

TAMBUNAN, Feb 6，2006 (Bernama) -- Fresh ginger or "halia segar" to the Malays is also known as saang geung in Cantonese, sheng jiang in Mandarin or simply Ingee in Tamil.

Scientifically named as "zingiber officinale" and believed to have originated from Southern China, it is a remedy for motion sickness and said to be able to boost blood circulation. This is no surprise as some people have been using it as an aphrodisiac.

To most Malaysians, ginger is a wonderful spice to cook.

Cultivating ginger is no big deal for farmers, but to residents of Tikolod, a Kadazandusun village located some 12km from here, it is their livelihood.

Tikolod is even dubbed the "ginger village" as it is Sabah's biggest ginger producer where almost all of its 500-odd residents are involved in ginger-planting.

Ginger farmer Thadius Yanggot said a Tikolod villager earns around RM350 a month from ginger-planting, depending on the acreage of land planted with this crop.

"This helps parents to supplement their income, assisting in meeting the schooling expenditure of their children," said the 61-year-old Thadius.

ANCESTRAL ACTIVITY

For Joannis Sampai, 37, planting ginger has been in existence for so long in the village, right from the time of their ancestors.

"Apart from ginger, other crops do not draw much interest here. There are some who plant paddy and other cash crops but these activities are on a small scale and only for their personal needs," he said.

Joannis hopes for the wholesale price of ginger to move up in the future. The price now hovers between RM1.80 and RM2.50 a kg.

Maritah Emin, 38, said Tikolod ginger farmers have no problems in selling their produce as there is a collection centre operated by the Federal Agriculture Marketing Authority (Fama) apart from middlemen who come to the village to buy the ginger wholesale.

"There are several breed of ginger but we prefer the Chinese variety. Previously we plant the local type but its size is too small.

"So we switch to the Chinese ginger and it is proven to be bigger and more commercial," said Maritah who plants ginger on 1.3 hectares of land.

She said the Chinese ginger is not exclusive to only Tikolod as there are other parts in Sabah that are ideal for its cultivation.

"If ginger-planting can be the livelihood of Tikolod villagers, it is not impossible for it to take place in other remote areas of the state if it is vigorously pursued," said Maritah.

VARIOUS CHALLENGES

Maritah admitted that earning money from cultivating ginger is no easy job as there are various challenges to it including the long eight-month wait for its "rhizome" or root to mature.

Comment by 私貨珍藏 on April 24, 2015 at 2:54pm

Not to mention the back-breaking farm-clearing work.

"So what we do is to plant the ginger in stages so that we continue to get our monthly earnings. There are several successful farmers who have reaped handsome rewards from this activity," said Maritah.

However the success story of Tikolod farmers is by no means an instant result.

Paulus Dandu, 64, has this to say: "I am very happy for having a better life now as compared to the pre-Merdeka days".

"Then, Tikolod village was lacking basic amenities. We have to walk the 12km stretch to Tambunan town to sell our produce.

"We usually carry about 25kg of fresh ginger in "wakid" (a huge basket used by the Kadazandusuns to carry things) and started for Tambunan at 2am and finally arriving at the town about five hours later.

"That was how we went about our work until the government built a road to Tikolod in 1976," Paulus told Bernama at the village which appears to be catching up with development.

The various infrastructure provided by the government -- schools, electricity and treated water supply as well as roads are in place and proved that the village is no longer left out from the development mainstream.

Thadius said: "Life as a farmer is hard, but what (facilities) we enjoy now are much better as compared to before Merdeka."

Admitting that he lacks education, Thadius said he is aware that education is very important to his children.

"I want them to get tertiary education and obtain better jobs instead of living the difficult and hard life that we have gone through," said Thadius, who also earns extra cash by making the "sompon", a traditional musical instrument.

ALTERNATIVE CAREER

As for Joanis, he harbours hopes for the market price of ginger to soar as it would give better earnings to the villagers.

"If the ginger price goes up, the villagers' standard of living will be better. Hence, this will help the government to lower the poverty rate especially in rural areas," he said.

Based on the national poverty definition, any family earning a monthly household income of RM680 or lower is considered poor while those with an income of RM350 or lower is categorised under the hardcore poor.

Meanwhile, Florence Juin, 20, said cultivating ginger can be an alternative work for jobless youths.

"If our parents, who depend on ginger-planting, can raise us and send us to school, I do not see why the present younger generation cannot do the same.

"The determination of Kampung Tikolod (villagers) to have a much better life by the year 2020 should be jointly shouldered by the younger generation as they are the ones who will be continuing the tradition of ginger-planting that has contributed a lot to Tikolod villagers," she said. (BERNAMA，By Newmond Tibin，Photo by The District of Tambunan)

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