Wednesday, October 29, 2008

OKU miliki 17 kolam ikan air tawar

PEKAN 26 Okt. - Di mana ada kemahuan, di situ ada jalan.

Itulah perumpamaan yang sesuai bagi menggambarkan kegigihan seorang kurang upaya yang kini memiliki sebilangan kolam ikan air tawar hasil usahanya dalam bidang akuakultur di Kampung Tanjung Pulai di sini sejak lapan tahun lalu.

Dengan hanya berbekalkan modal permulaan sebanyak RM1,200 dan sebuah kolam ikan air tawar pada tahun 2000, Mohd. Khairi Othman, 31, yang kudung kedua belah tangan dan kaki sejak lahir, kini bergelar usahawan yang mempunyai 17 kolam ikan air tawar.

Lebih mengagumkan, Mohd. Khairi yang berkerusi roda dan terpaksa mengesot memasuki ladang ternakannya, mampu menguruskan kolam tersebut bersendirian dan meraih pendapatan ribuan ringgit sebulan.

''Aspek penjagaan harian seperti memberi makanan dan pemantauan saya lakukan sendiri.

''Bagaimanapun, saya akan mengupah beberapa pekerja untuk mengangkat ikan dari kolam," katanya kepada Utusan Malaysia ketika ditemui di kampung itu, baru-baru ini.

Mohd. Khairi yang masih bujang berkata, dia bertekad memulakan projek ternakan ikan air tawar tersebut apabila menyedari kekurangan yang ada pada dirinya dan berasa perlu melakukan sesuatu demi memperbaiki taraf hidupnya.

''Saya mula menimba pengalaman dengan membantu salah seorang saudara saya menguruskan kolam ikan air tawar miliknya di sebuah kawasan berdekatan kampung ini.

''Sejak itu minat timbul dan dengan bermodalkan RM1,200 serta sebuah kolam ikan yang dipinjamkan oleh saudara saya itu pada tahun 2000, saya memulakan perniagaan sendiri," katanya.

Mohd. Khairi memberitahu, ketika ini kolam ikannya mampu mengeluarkan lebih 600 kilogram ikan talapia dan patin bagi setiap lima bulan.

Menurutnya, pasaran ikan air tawarnya tertumpu di pasar-pasar basah di daerah ini selain orang ramai yang datang terus ke ladang ternakannya itu.

Ditanya mengenai rancangan masa depan, dia bercadang menambah kolam ikan sedia ada, sekali gus meningkatkan hasil pengeluarannya.

Tambahnya, kekurangan pada diri bukan halangan untuk maju dalam bidang yang diceburinya itu sebaliknya menganggapnya sebagai cabaran.

''Saya berpegang kepada prinsip bahawa setiap kekurangan pasti ada kelebihan," tegasnya

Kempen tanam sendiri ajar rakyat berjimat

HULU SELANGOR 26 Okt. - Seramai 50 penduduk perumahan Bukit Sentosa 3 dekat sini menyahut 'Kempen Tanam Sendiri Jimat Belanja' dengan menerima anak pokok cili, biji benih dan baja untuk memulakan penanaman sayur-sayuran di halaman rumah masing-masing.

Presiden Gabungan Persatuan-Persatuan Pengguna Malaysia (FOMCA), Datuk Marimuthu Nadason (gambar) berkata, kempen tersebut bertujuan mendidik generasi muda hari ini untuk menjadi rakyat yang berjimat-cermat.

''Kempen Tanam Sendiri Jimat Belanja sebenarnya satu kempen sempena Kempen Konsumer 2008-2010 dan ia telah bermula sejak Julai lalu untuk tempoh 84 bulan,'' katanya pada sidang akhbar selepas menyempurnakan majlis penyerahan anak pokok cili, biji benih dan baja kepada penduduk di Padang Kemboja 4A di sini hari ini.

Beliau berkata, FOMCA bersama tiga rakan gabungannya iaitu Majlis Kebangsaan Pertubuhan Wanita (NCWO), Kongres Kesatuan Pekerja-Pekerja Dalam Perkhidmatan Awam (CUEPACS) dan Majlis Belia Malaysia (MBM) mengajak rakyat mengubah kehidupan sejak harga barangan naik secara mendadak.

Katanya, rakyat yang bijak seharusnya boleh merancang perbelanjaan sendiri dan tidak terlalu bergantung kepada kerajaan.

Justeru, ujarnya, langkah awal yang harus dipraktikkan oleh generasi muda hari ini ialah mengelakkan pembaziran supaya lahir masyarakat yang tidak membazir pada masa akan datang.

Beliau menambah, adalah menjadi tugas FOMCA hari ini untuk mendidik generasi muda sekarang dengan kefahaman yang lebih mendalam supaya mereka menjadi rakyat yang berjimat-cermat.

Katanya, kerajaan turut memainkan peranan lebih berkesan dengan mengusahakan kembali tanah-tanah pertanian yang didapati terbiar di seluruh negara.

''Jika tanah pertanian seluas 800,000 hektar yang terbiar itu dapat diusahakan oleh pesawah kecil-kecilan seperti dijadikan bendang maka kadar 35 peratus beras yang diimport dari luar negara untuk kegunaan rakyat dapat dikurangkan,'' katanya.

Meneroka manfaat dan khasiat halia


HALIA sememangnya mempunyai nilai perubatan tersendiri.


Tanaman halia bukan saja digunakan dalam masakan tetapi tumbuhan herba ini juga terkenal sebagai makanan kesihatan malah penyeri landskap.

Penanaman halia mempunyai sejarah yang panjang dan dikatakan bermula di China sebelum tersebar ke Asia Tenggara, Afrika Barat dan kepulauan Caribbean.

Halia mengandungi sehingga tiga peratus minyak pati yang memberikannya aroma. Rizom (akar) halia muda biasanya berjus dan mempunyai rasa pedas yang lembut.

Halia jeruk boleh dimakan sebagai snek dan air halia yang ditambah dalam teh bersama-sama madu akan menambahkan keenakannya.

Dari segi saintifiknya, semua jenis halia berada dalam Order Zingiberales dan Famili Zingiberaceae.

Pensyarah Kanan, Institut Sains Biologi Universiti Malaya (UM), Prof. Halijah Ibrahim berkata, famili ini dapat dibezakan kerana seluruh atau bahagian tertentu tumbuhan herba ini adalah aromatik.

Menurutnya, halia tergolong dalam tumbuhan herba yang mempunyai rizom misalnya kunyit, halia dan lengkuas yang biasa digunakan dalam makanan.

"Keluarga Zingiberaceae mempunyai saiz yang pelbagai dan boleh dibezakan dengan taburan padat di kawasan Asia Tenggara," katanya yang telah lebih 20 tahun menjalankan kajian mengenai halia.

Pada masa ini, terdapat 350 spesies halia yang dikenal pasti di seluruh negara, manakala Thailand mempunyai lebih 300 spesies.

Biasanya halis jenis Zingiberaceae terdapat di kawasan tropika dan subtropika dan juga terdapat lebih 52 genera dengan 1,300 hingga 1,500 spesies.

"Di Malaysia saja terdapat 21 hingga 22 genera dengan lebih 350 spesies," hurai Halijah.

Beliau berkata, disebabkan halia banyak digunakan dalam pelbagai budaya di seluruh dunia, halia mempunyai kepentingan dalam ekonomi.

Terdapat halia yang boleh dimakan dan biasanya ditambah dalam masakan seperti rempah atau sebagai ulaman.

"Kunyit atau Cucurma domestica, Zingir officianale (halia), Elettaria cardamimum (buah pelaga), Alpinia galanga (lengkuas), E elation (kantan), kaempteria galanga (cekur) biasa digunakan dalam masakan," katanya.

Selain dalam masakan dan minuman, keluarga halia juga banyak digunakan dalam perubatan tradisional yang menggunakan campuran herba.

Sehingga kini terdapat 30 hingga 40 spesies halia yang direkodkan digunakan dalam perubatan tradisional.

"Tentu saja masyarakat kenal dengan Zingiber zerumbet (lempoyang), Z. ottensini (lempoyang hitam), Z. officinale var rubrum (halia bara), Ccurcuma aeruginosa (kunyit hitam/temu hitam), C. zanthorrhiza (temu lawak), C. mangga (temu pauh/mangga), C. zedoria (temu putih/kunyit putih).

"Semua bahan ini banyak digunakan sebagai campuran dalam perubatan tradisional," katanya.

Halia yang mempunyai bentuk bunga yang cantik dan beraroma juga boleh dijadikan tanaman hiasan dan landskap.

Beberapa tanaman halia seperti Alpinia purpurata (halia merah), Z. spectabile (cut flower), Alpinia zurember (shell ginger), A. mutica, A. malaccensis, A. latiladis (landskap), Kaemferia spp. sesuai dijadikan tanaman hiasan kerana mudah dikendalikan.

Tanaman halia yang mempunyai aroma merupakan sumber minyak pati bagi minyak wangi, perisa dan aroma terapi.

Katanya, kajian perlu dijalankan dengan mendalam memandangkan halia boleh dijadikan sumber kanji manakala dalam dunia perubatan, keluarga halia didapati mempunyai aktiviti biologi yang baik sebagai anti kanser, anti mikrobial, anti oksidan dan anti radangan.

"Di negara jiran Indonesia, keluarga halia seperti temu, kunyit dan halia banyak digunakan dalam jamu, kosmetik dan teh.

"Di sini semakin banyak produk dihasilkan daripada halia seperti teh, kosmetik, aroma terapi, krim wajah, krim pemutih dan krim anti penuaan," katanya.

Beliau yang menyertai Ekspedisi Lanjak Entimau di Sarawak, baru-baru ini untuk meneroka khazanah alam semula jadi berharap akan dapat menemui lebih banyak spesies bagi menambah lagi bilangan, mengemaskini data kepelbagaian halia.

"Pelbagai aspek kajian mengenai spesies yang baru ditemui dan terdapat kajian yang akan menjadi asas kepada etnobotanikal terutama dalam kepentingan perubatan.

"Ini akan menjurus kepada menemui dan memulihara spesies endemik yang masih tidak diketahui kegunaannya," katanya.

Katanya lagi, pihaknya akan mengkaji spesies halia yang berpotensi bagi tumbuhan ornamental untuk dibiakbaka secara tisu kultur untuk dikomersialkan.

Petikan dari Utusan Online



Friday, September 19, 2008

The History of Kobe Beef in Japan

By John W. Longworth


Eating meat from four legged animals was prohibited in Japan for more than a thousand years prior to 1868. This ban was especially strict during the Edo Period (1603-1867). Buddhist influences were primarily responsible for this dietary restriction, but other cultural factors and the need to protect draught animals in times of famine may have reinforced the taboo. After the Meiji Restoration in 1868, the new leaders of Japan wanted, among other things, to reduce traditional social barriers and to encourage the adoption of beneficial Western habits. There may also have been a desire to weaken the power of the Buddhists. Lifting the ban on the eating of meat was a small step towards these objectives. Nevertheless, it must have astounded the nobility of the day to see the young Emperor Meiji eating beef.
Meiji (1852-1912), emperor of Japan (1867-1912), born Prince Mutsuhito and the 122nd emperor in the traditional count, whose accession to the throne marked the beginning of a national revolution known as the Meiji Restoration.

Despite the formal rescinding of the prohibition against the eating of meat in the late 1860’s, the consumption of meat remained extremely low for another century. Until very recent times meat (niku in Japanese) usually meant pork in eastern Japan (roughly from Tokyo to Hokkaido) and beef in western Japan (from Nagoya/Osaka to Kyushu). Historically, and even today, the people of the Kinki Region (Kyoto, Kobe, and Osaka) have been the heaviest beef eaters.

For millennia the people of Japan lived on a diet of rice, vegetables, and seafood eaten with hashi (chopsticks). Although the meat taboo was removed over a hundred years earlier, by 1980 the average Japanese ate only 5.1 kg of beef (carcass weight basis). In some Western countries, where income levels are comparable with those in Japan, the average person commonly devours ten times this quantity each year. Although the younger generation has grown up with Western cuisine, knife and fork, most Japanese still enjoy beef best when it is prepared as very thin slices, cooked in the traditional manner and eaten with hashi.

From about 1955 onwards, the mechanization of rice cultivation led to an increase in the availability of beef, as large numbers of draught cattle were fattened and slaughtered. At the same time the rapid economic growth, which started with the Korean War boom, was gaining momentum. People could afford the luxury of meat more often.

Wagyu in Cows in Matsusaka are bought in Tajima (Hyogo), Shimane and Shikoku. There is no breeding in Matsusaka.

The Origins of Kobe Beef

The creation of genuine Kobe (or Matsuzaka or Omi) beef is a mystical folk art which may have been practiced as an underground cult before 1868. Some sources claim that certain daimyo and even some shoguns enjoyed especially fattened beef from Hihone hab (now Shiga Prefecture, the home of Omi beef). Most Japanese believe, however, that the art of producing Omi, Matusaka, or Kobe beef cannot be traced back to feudal times.

Kobe beef traditionally comes from Wagyu cattle. Wa” is a very old Japanese language term for Japan, or things Japanese, and one of the meanings of “gyu” is beef, with an “on the hoof” connotation. There are four commercial breeds of Wagyu:

Name of modern breed

Region and prefecture in which the breed developed

European breeds crossed with native cattle

% of national beef breed herd (1981)

Japanese Black

Kinki – Kyoto

Brown Swiss

87%

Kinki – Hyogo

Shorthorn, Devon, Brown Swiss

Chugoku – Okayama

Shorthorn, Devon

Chugoku -Hiroshima

Simmental, Brown Swiss, Shorthorn, Ayrshire

Chugoku – Tottori

Brown Swiss, Shorthorn

Chugoku – Shimene

Devon, Brown Swiss, Simmental, Ayrshire

Chugoku - Yamaguchi

Devon, Ayrshire, Brown Swiss

Shikoku – Ehime

Shorthorn

Kyushu – Oita

Brown Swiss, Simmental

Kyushu -Kagoshima

Brown Swiss, Devon, Holstein

Japanese Brown

Shikoku – Kochi

Simmental, Korean Cattle

9%

Kyushu - Kumamoto

Simmental, Korean Cattle, Devon

Japanese Poll

Chugoku – Yamaguchi

Aberdeen Angus

<>

Japanese Shorthorn

Tohoku – Aomori

Shorthorn, Dairy Shorthorn

Tohoku – Iwate

Shorthorn, Dairy Shorthorn

Tohoku – Akita

Shorthorn, Devon, Ayrshire

Source: Derived from Kiyoshi Namikawa, “Animal Genetic Resources in Japan,” in S. Barker (ed.). Proceedings of the SABRAO Workshop on Animal Genetic Resources in Asia and Oceania. NEKKEN SHIRYO No. 47, Tropical Agricultural Research Centre, MAFF, Japan.

These four breeds are now considered indigenous to Japan, but are not genuinely native cattle. There are two isolated populations of native cattle in existence. The Mishima wild cattle on Mishima Island (located in the Sea of Japan off Yamaguchi Prefecture) have never been crossed with modern European breeds. While they represent a genuine genetic curiosity, as of 1983 there were fewer than 40 head. The second, and more numerous, are a group of wild cattle on Kuchinoshima Island south-west of Kagoshima Prefecture. The progenitors of both the Mishima and Kuchinoshima cattle were probably brought to Japan by the ancestors of the modern Japanese people more than 2,000 years ago. Biochemical and genetic tests indicate that the native cattle are more closely related to the cattle of Northern Europe and Scandanavia than they are to the cattle indigenous to Taiwan, the Philippines, and other South East Asian Countries.

The four modern Japanese breeds are the result of a substantial infusion of European blood during the Meiji Era, together with a government-sponsored selection programme initiated in 1919. For several decades prior to 1910, there was a great interest in importing European breeds to cross with native cattle. The basic aim was to improve the native strains for draught purposes, but better meat production was also a consideration. Exotic breeds were extremely popular and the price of pure-bred and cross-bred exotic animals often reached unreasonable levels, until the bubble burst in 1910. After this date, the importation of European breeds went out of fashion.

After World War I, the Japanese Government decided to encourage the selection and registration of cattle exhibiting superior traits of both native and foreign types. There was a considerable gene pool to draw upon, as a wide range of European blood had been introduced to Japan. This variation, together with the original differences among the native cattle, permitted selection according to different criteria in various parts of the country. After World War II, the National Government moved to rationalize the registration process and formally recognized three major Wagyu types or breeds: Japanese Black, Japanese Brown, and Japanese Poll. The National Wagyu Cattle Registration Association was established in 1948.

The Japanese Black breed included several fairly distinct types, and this is still the case today (e.g. Tottori, Tajima, and Hiroshima strains). The Japanese Shorthorn was not formally established until 1957.

After careful selection and breeding over the last five decades, there are slight differences in the concept of the “true type” for each breed, but many similarities. All four breeds have been selected for beef production alone for more than forty years. In all four breeds the aim is to produce a medium-sized, beef-type animal. All of the breeds are humpless but the bulls tend to develop a marked crest. While the ideal mature body weight and height at the withers differ marginally between the four breeds, the targets for the Japanese Black are typical:

Male

Female

Body weight (kg)

940

560

Wither height (cm)

142

128

While it is hard to generalize, two traits of the Japanese Black often cited as disadvantageous are their narrow pin bones and their relatively poor milking capacity. The narrow pin bones create calving difficulties if the cows are crossed with bulls of the large-framed European breeds (such as Holstein or Charolais). The poor milking ability increases the costs of raising feeder calves since the calves often need artificial supplements.

On the other hand, the Japanese Blacks (in particular the Tajima strain) are noted for their capacity to produce beef with a high degree of fat marbling (or sashi). It is this characteristic more than any other which accounts for the steady increase in the popularity of the Japanese Black breed.

According to the website of the California BBQ Association, "In order to protect its domestic beef industry, the Japanese government imposed strict laws that prohibited the export of any living Japanese Wagyu cattle. However, in 1976, four Wagyu animals were imported into the U.S.: two Tottori Black Wagyu and two Kumamoto Red Wagyu bulls. Then in 1993, two male and three female Tajima cattle were imported, and 35 male and female cattle (consisting of both red and black Wagyu) were imported in 1994.

"Most Kobe Beef today is bred and raised in California and Australia. For example, Harris Ranch in California is contracted with beef producers in Kobe to breed and raise their cattle in California, where land and grain is relatively inexpensive. The cattle is raised and fed under the exacting specifications for Kobe Beef. When the cattle is almost ready for slaughter, it is shipped to Kobe, Japan, where its feeding is completed, and the cattle is slaughtered."



From Beef in Japan by Prof. John W. Longworth, University of Queensland Press, 1983. This book is currently out-of-print, and this information is used here with the kind permission of Prof. Longworth.

If any of this information has changed in the past 21 or so years, we would greatly appreciate it if you would please e-mail us. We will gladly update this information.

Photographs for Lucies Farm by Kjeld Duits.

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