KUALA KANGSAR, July 8 (Bernama) -- The Malaysian Agricultural Research and Development Institute (MARDI) aims to cultivate 219 varieties of durian on 21 hectares of land at the Kuala Kangsar MARDI Durio AgroPark.
Its Perak director, Zaiha Zeeti Mohamad Yusob said it was part of Kuala Kangsar MARDI’s function as a support station for research, development and transfer of technology for fruits, specifically durian, adding that the station currently had a variety of clone durians, including D2, D6, D7, MDUR 78, 79 88, D176, D133 and other premium types in the market.
"We aim to have the entire collection of durians in the country as reference and research for the future, and we want to ensure the varieties are always available and that cloning will provide added value to the durians.
"We have the cooperation of the Agricultural Department as reference to obtain saplings and the work by MARDI staff who look for various types of kampung durians unavailable in the department’s storage,” she said at a media conference after a Duriotourism event with the media at Kuala Kangsar MARDI here today.
She added that Kuala Kangsar MARDI is organising the Duriotourism@Mardi Kuala Kangsar package from July 9 to 29 for the public to enjoy premium durians based on the institute’s research.
"The Duriotourism package and sale are on the dates set and the public has the opportunity to look at orchards filled with durians, pomelos and mangosteens and enjoy the fresh fruits.
"There are two sessions for the package, the morning session from 10 am to noon and the afternoon session from 4 pm to 6 pm at a price of RM50 for adults, RM18 for children and RM35 for the elderly and disabled,” Zaiha Zeeti said, adding that the package was introduced in 2019, but was stopped in 2020 due to the COVID19 pandemic and restarted in 2022.
"In 2022, we had to shut it down due to fruit diseases and the next year we postponed the event due to unsatisfactory quality of fruits.
"Alhamdulillah, this year, fruits are available so we’re ready to hold the event for the public for this month only,” she added.
-- BERNAMA
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