TERESA Kok has taken to task Utusan Malaysia over a misleading headline suggesting that she called on smallholders to drop oil palm for bamboo.

The primary industries minister said bamboo was just one of several crops she suggested as an alternative to counter the over-reliance on oil palm, in the face of the West’s anti-palm oil campaign.

She said she never meant that smallholders cultivating oil palm should replace their crop entirely with bamboo, as the Bahasa Malaysia newspaper seemed to suggest in its article headlined “Lupakan kelapa sawit, tanam buluh” (Forget oil palm, plant bamboo).

“Bamboo, pineapple and coconut – as I mentioned yesterday – are alternatives for smallholders who have, all this while, relied solely on oil palm as the source of their supplementary income,” she said in a statement.

Kok said while the content of the report is acceptable, the headline is not.

She said her comments referred specifically to Pahang, which has a lot of bamboo.

“Smallholders can choose other crops, depending on the area. Some areas have coconut, some have pineapple, others have durian. So, it depends on the area.

“With this explanation, I hope the confusion is quashed.”

She added that Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad has directed the ministry to diversify commodity crops, so that planters do not become too reliant on a single type.

“This is to combat the anti-palm oil sentiment in Europe, which is affecting the export of Malaysian palm oil to the global market, in particular, European countries.” – March 3, 2019.