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Durian Info & Services: Department of Agriculture Malaysia

The Malaysian Department of Agriculture's website has a lot of information on durian especially the Malaysian varieties.

It's amicable to find that this site has an English version besides the official Bahasa Malaysia version. Most of the stuff on durian can be found under e-Services.

The following information is intended to help you navigate DOA website and to get some of this durian information and the services provided by DOA to help you manage your durian farm.


DOA - Home Page _ English Version
Let's begin with the e-Services that has 9 options for you as a Customer.

The online services range from extension, technical support, courses, schemes, permits, licenses to agribazaar.

DOA - Online Services for Customer
On the left column of the screen, directly under heading Customer is Extension, Advisory and Consultancy services - one of the main functions of DOA. This page is for people who are interested in starting an agricultural project or are involved with some kind of agricultural activity. As durian farmers you are in this group.


One of the core programs under Extension, Advisory and Consultancy services is "Dokter Pokok" literally translated as "Tree Doctor" and you should make good use of this service.


This program is known in full as Doktor Pokok Development Clinic


This is THE  place you go to where you can present and resolve any issues pertaining to agricultural activities. 

For example, if you have a problem regarding your durian trees (or any other crop), be it pests or diseases, soil issues, cultural practices, irrigation etc, you can approach any Doktor Pokok Development Clinic with your problem and the good "doctor" will help you resolve the problem. And the good news is this service is FREE.

"Doktor Pokok" refers to DOA officers who are experts in various fields while "Development Clinic" refers to the place or counter where the services are provided.

"Doktor Pokok" Expertise

Here are the contact numbers for the various counters/clinics in the federal territories and states:


Doktor Pokok Development Clinic contact numbers
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The next item on the e-Services list is Technical Support that has 9 services listed:

DOA - technical Support Services
In this group, there are four main technical support services - fruit cultivars, seeds and planting materials; crop pests and diseases; soil services and maps: and lab analytical services. While some of these services are channel free under the "Doktor Pokok" program, most of the other technical services are not free.You will have to pay for these dedicated and specialized services.
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Courses and Training is the next item on the e-Services list.

DOA offers several courses for youths as well as for entrepreneurs and farmers. You will have to check this out for the latest news.

Courses and Training
As a durian farmer you can get on-the-spot training on most agricultural practices such as how to identify and control durian pests and diseases, how to apply fertilizers, how to prune your trees etc., by agricultural extension officers under the Doktor Pokok Development Clinic program.
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DOA has eight Schemes and Certificate programs.

DOA's Schemes and Certificate Programs
The Malaysian Good Agriculture Practice Scheme (SALM) and Malaysian Organic Scheme (SOM) are two wonderful programs that you might want to consider.

The Plant Material Verification Scheme or Skim Pengesahan Bahan Tanaman (SPBT)  is the most important for durian farmers (or other fruit farmers) who are sourcing for verified planting materials.

Under  SPBT, DOA guaranteed the authenticity and quality breeds of plant nurseries.

Plant Material Verification Scheme is for genuine and quality crop producers.


If you looking for genuine and quality fruit nurseries to source  your planting material then this site for you.

Presently, there are 37 fruit nurseries registered under the auspices of DOA and you can get a list of these suppliers under SPBT Directory:

SPBT - Directory for the various states

 This directory is constantly up-dated and published by DOA in its monthly bulletin :

Monthly Bulletin on SPBT

You can download a copy of this bulletin under Publication. (Link Page under Plant Material Verification Scheme).

 
Durian Varieties Under SPBT




Please take note that only recommended or registered durian varieties are verified by DOA. Non-recommended durian varieties including "Black Thorn" or " Orchee (Orchi)" are not in this SPBT program. This particular variety is still in the process of verification by DOA.

You buy unregistered varieties at your own risk!



Free Publications
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The next item under DOA's e-Services is Registration Under Act.

PLANT VARIETY PROTECTION MALAYSIA.

This is Malaysia's version of Plant Breeders' Rights also called Plant Variety Protection (PVP), and is a form of Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs).


New Plant Variety Registration

The Plant Variety Protection (PVP) Malaysia has a separate website and here is the link.


Plant Variety Protection Malaysia Website - Home Page

This is the best site to learn about Malaysian durian varieties and also to register new varieties.


Characteristics of Malaysian Durian Varieties

To get to this page, you will need to follow this path:

 Home>National List>Non-Protected Varieties>Plant Database>Fruits>Durian.


Path to Durian Characteristics of Varieties

DOA has changed the layout of this particular page.You won't be able to find the following item in the new layout:
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To check the latest application for registration of durian  varieties such as "Orchee", "Orchi" or "Black Thorn", you will need to go to: 

Home>National List>Non-protected Varieties>Records>Applications

Application of new Durian Vaviety

For a list of recommended fruit varieties (including durian):

List of Recommended Fruit Varieties in Malaysia
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 The above item "Non-protected varieties" is no longer available in the new layout.

Recommended Plant Varieties In Malaysia has been replaced with this latest list of recommended varieties for the various fruits:

Updated September 2014 -Durian has 7 recommended varieties compared to 6 in the previous list
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The next four e-Services are License, Permit, Online Services and AgriBazaar of which the last one may be of interest to those involve in large-scale agricultural production.
AgriBazaar
AgriBazaar  was established with the purpose of promoting trade between producers and suppliers of agriculture products. It provide an Internet-based trading hub for buyers and sellers of agriculture products to do business online.

Agribazaar hopes to enable retailers, wholesalers, collectors, traders, farmers, exporters and importers to interact with each other in order to achieve and fulfill their own goals while offering the same benefits to the people they do business with.

In short, Agribazaar aims to create future development in the agricultural sector through online transactions.


AgriBazaar Website
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Under DOA's Home Page, the next place which I think is very important for us who are involved with agriculture is the links to the various State Department of Agriculture.



Scroll down to the bottom right-hand corner of the page and you will find this image entitled State Department of Agriculture. Listed below the map are various states in Malaysia. Click on to the state you would like to go next.


State Department of Agriculture Links

Another way to go to the various state Department of Agriculture is listed under DOA Staff.


Click on to DOA Staff
Click DOA Staff and  follow the link on "About DOA"

About DOA

 Follow the link to the various state DOA offices.


State Department of Agriculture Links

One of the best state DOA websites is Perak State Department of Agriculture.  It has a lot of downloadable information (in Bahasa Malaysia) on agriculture. You should visit it.


Perak DOA Home Page
You can download a Manual on Durian Planting (in Bahasa Malaysia) from this site.

How To Get Durian Information
Path: Pertanianperak>Maklumat>Buah-buahan & Sayur-sayuran>Durian
Guide to Planting Durian - Download pdf copy
Department of Agriculture Sarawak

DOA Sarawak
The Agriculture Department of Sarawak has a good collection of technology packages and they are in English.

DOA Sarawak webpage
The only way to get information on durian is to click on the English version for the homepage and type "durian" in the SEARCH box which looks like this below:

Search Result for "durian"

Under search result you will find durian information for Sarawak - the direct link to this durian technology package is  HERE..


Technology package on durian

Right click your mouse and save page as a htm or html file.

23 comments:

  1. When the trees are infected with fungus or insects, can the trees be cured or will they die? thanks

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    Replies
    1. Yes, you can help your trees by giving them the correct treatments otherwise they'll eventually die. Get the DOA to help you or check out my page on Durian Pests and Diseases.

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  2. This is a really incredible resource for navigating some of Malaysia's Agriculture websites. Thanks so much for putting this together! It's very helpful for me and I'm sure for many others looking for official information about durian.

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    Replies
    1. Thanks Lindsay. Glad you find this page very useful to you. DOA has made some changes to the Plant Varieties Protection website. I have updated these changes.

      NB: That's why you can't find any info on the Black Thorn. DOA has removed this section. I'll get back to you later when I get more info.

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    2. I was scrolling through the variety list again today and noticed that not all the varieties are listed. Do you know if anyone has a complete list of all the varieties with photos?

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  3. Yes, you're correct. I did not list all the durian varieties registered with DOA - only some of the popular ones. As far as I know, no one has a complete list of all the Malaysian varieties with photos.

    Under DOA's "Plant Variety Protection Malaysia" website, Malaysia has 199 durian varieties registered as of March 2013. There are plant records or databases for 121 varieties while the remaining 78 varieties have no record whatsoever.

    Follow this path to view:
    http://pvpbkkt.doa.gov.my/>National Crop List>Records of National Crop List>Fruits>(See pages 6 to 18 for durians)

    This site also has another page under National Crop List>Plant Database>Fruits>Durian. Here, you'll find 4 pages listing 33 durian varieties with complete records and photos (click on the "Images" icon).

    Many durian websites have photos of some of the popular varieties but they can be confusing especially if they are tagged with local names. Accuracy is questionable as most of them are not certified by the relevant authorities.


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  5. Fantastic info here !!! May I know who coined the name Mao Shang Wang and when roughly? Was this variety something new or has been around for tenths of years but was only recently registered officially. Thank You // jimmyyap48@gmail.com

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  6. Fantastic info here !!! May I know who coined the name Mao Shang Wang and when roughly? Was this variety something new or has been around for tenths of years but was only recently registered officially. Thank You // jimmyyap48@gmail.com

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Jimmy,

      The official info for Mao Shang Wang is that it was registered as Raja Kunyit or D197 on 9 December 1993 by Mr Wee Chong Beng from Tanah Merah, Kelantan. It's also commonly known as Musang King or Mousang King because these durians are the best among all the other durians grown in the remote hills of Gua Musang in southern Kelantan.

      So, who coined the name? And how long ago?

      Probably Mr Wee's associates or the locals from Gua Musang (Mr. Wee himself registered it officially as Raja Kunyit).

      How long ago? Probably 27 to 30 years ago. My reasoning - it's registered in Dec 1993. Working backwards from 2015 to 1993 ( 22 years) and the evaluation process (usually 5+ years).

      I don't know the history of the mother tree. It could be a very matured seedling tree or a young matured tree. It's probably a chance hybrid grown naturally from a seed. Mr. Wee probably would have monitored the tree for about 3 to 5 seasons before deciding to register it. That could be during 1985 to 1988.

      Hope my answer is satisfactory.

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  7. Do you have any reference regarding the best practice of durian planting, from digging the hole, how deep, the diameter of the whole, a guidance for fertilizer from small durian tree until the harvest time? Thanks

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    Replies
    1. You can find two good references from the DOA's of Perak and Sarawak. I have given the direct links to these sources in this same DOA blog. Please refer to them and happy durian info hunting to you.

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  8. Thank you for your wonderful website. For your information i am a durian enthusiast and would like to grow my own durian tree. The problem in Sarawak here is that I do not know of any nursery here that sells spbt certifief seedlings. My experience in a local nusery is that when i asked for a d99 seedling the owner gave me a seedling that is clearly not a d99 when refered to doa's guideline. Thanks for your input.

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    Replies
    1. You'll need to approach your DOA office in Kuching or the district you live in. Ask the officers there where you can buy good durian planting materials in your area. Good luck.

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  9. HI, Francis,where can i find the origin of Mao Shang Wang tree from Gua Musang? any idea? would like to grow my own durian farm. i'm from pahang.

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  10. Hi Tan,

    Technically D197 is registered as Raja Kunyit but is also known as Musang King or Mao Shang Wang. You can get good D197 planting materials from nurseries which are certified under the Department of Agriculture scheme SPBT. You can get them at the DOA's nursery in Serdang or from the nearby Mardi station. You can try the nursery at Bt.14 along the Karak highway. Good luck and success in your durian farm.

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  11. Hi Francis, I plan to build a durian nursery. What are the requirements for a nursery structures suitable for seedling? Because I understand durian seedlings are very sensitive to the environment. Thanks

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  12. Hi Duane,

    The structures for a durian nursery will depend on the purpose of your nursery! Why do you need to establish a nursery? Is it to produce enough good planting materials for your own farm or is it to produce planting materials for sale? Your purpose determine the size of your nursery. Once you have establish how large your nursery is, you will need to site it at the best possible location. Consider easy accessibility for staff and customers; good water supply: good soil, seed or planting materials, sand etc; protected from strong winds, floods, livestock, etc.

    Nursery operations depend on the types of planting materials you are raising. It could range from seed sourcing,seed preparation, sowing, watering, culling, potting, bagging, root pruning, fertilizing, hardening, etc.

    What structures would you need? It can as simple or as elaborate as you want - plastic shade netting, sprinklers, raised beds, plastic bags, tools, tools shed, watering cans, water hoses, etc.

    That's it. Good luck to you Duane.

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    Replies
    1. Thanks Francis, you already answered my question. It's a small nursery to prepare seeds for my durian orchard. I'm a beginner in durian industry. So, my next question is how to sow creft grafted seedlings into healthy plants ready to be transferred to site. I'm not too familiar with the proper process.

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    2. Hi Duane,

      Please read my article on "Durian Grafting" especially "Technique of Cleft Grafting of Durian". All the information you need is there. First you'll need to prepare your durian seedlings - they must be at least 5 weeks old before you do the grafting.

      You must read this article about:
      "Thai farmer produces grafted durian plants for sale". Go to the link from my page..

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    3. Thanks again Francis for a great article. Your article linked me to a Thai website on similar topic, where it mentioned that they "trim" the roots after successful graft and before transfering them into polybags. It looks like the roots are trimmed. Are you familiar with roots trimming? How do you trim the roots? Is it important?

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    4. Hi Duane,

      Root trimming or root pruning is seldom practiced on durian. In the nursery, stock plants are grown from seeds and all seedling plants has a tap root which need to be cut or trimmed to fit into a polybag. For adult trees, sometimes farmers may do root trimming or root pruning to slow down the vegetative growth of very vigorous trees. These trees usually have luxurious growth but no flowers or fruit. Irrigation and fertilizers need to be adjusted accordingly.

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