ABSTRACT
The role of agriculture in ensuring continued economic development is crucial. Although the agricultural sector was neglected for a short period when Malaysia, for example, focused on industrialisation in the 1980s and 1990s, it was promoted as the third engine of growth (Wong, 2007) in the Ninth Malaysia Plan which covered the 2006-2010 period. In this respect, the oil palm industry played a key role because oil palm is currently the most important commodity crop in Malaysia. Malaysia also has world-renowned expertise in the management and research and development (R&D) of tree crop agriculture, first in the rubber industry and then the oil palm industry and plantation forestry as well.
