Majority of rural folks earn below RM850

For decades now, Deputy Chief Minister Alfred Jabu has been in charge of modernising agriculture and improving rural development, but nothing much has changed.

KUCHING: Krian assemblyman Ali Biju has questioned the state government’s programme to modernise agriculture and eradicate poverty in rural areas.

Debating the Yang di-Pertua Negeri Sarawak Abang Muhammad Salahuddin Abang Barieng’s address in the Sarawak Legislative Assembly sitting, Biju said:

“The state government has been developing large-scale plantations for commercial crop.

“However, Bumiputera participation in agri-business does not even reach 20% and the majority of rural communities are having income below the poverty line index of RM850 per month.

“As such, an aggressive socio-economic transformation plan is required in rural areas.

“This transformation requires complete overhaul of agricultural practices and construction of basic infrastructures.”

Citing the situation in the Krian constituency, Biju said the most effective way to improve socio-economic conditions in rural communities is to develop smallholdings of commercial crop, especially oil palm and high-yield rubber.

“Smallholdings do not only eradicate poverty rate among rural farmers but also reduce dependency on foreign workers in plantation, provide job opportunities, minimise rural-urban migration, develop rural entrepreneur, empower rural communities and provide a sense of pride to farmers through self-reliance.

“It also helps to preserve native culture and customary practices on their land.

“Smallholdings of four hectares of proper commercial farms can create tremendous socio-economic change for rural households,” Biju said.

He urged the government of the day to come out with specific programme to assist and cultivate at least four hectares per family of commercial crops, either oil palm or rubbers.

No assistance for smallholders

He said that throughout the Krian constituency, there are many genuine poor rural farmers interested in oil palm planting.

“However, a lot of their applications for assistance to MPOB [Malaysian Palm Oil Board] office are not entertained or not processed without any reason.

“I would like to thank State Agricultural Modernisation Minister [Alfred Jabu Numpang] in his oral reply that the government will provide assistance through MPOB irrespective of their political affiliation since poverty eradication is applicable to all poor farmers.

“So far, the government has not allocated sufficient budget to cater for the needs of oil palm smallholders. I would like to know how much has been allocated to oil palm smallholders.

“How many applications have been received and approved by MPOB?” Biju asked.

He also questioned the financial capability of the government to plant 200,000ha by 2021 of high- yield rubber trees as planned by Pemandu (Performance Management and Delivery Unit).

“I would like to express my concern on the availability of federal fund to finance such an ambitious undertaking.

“Such undertaking costs about RM13,500 per ha to plant rubber trees so the government has to set a budget of RM2.7 billion over the next 10 years or RM270 million per year.

“Looking at the budget to plant rubber for 2012 of about RM70 million, it means we are way behind our target already,” he said.

Rubber smallholders

A lot of smallholders, through their own efforts, plant commercial crops like oil palm and rubber without waiting for assistance from agricultural department.

“They are facing many obstacles, especially relating to terracing and construction of farm roads leading to their farms.

“I urge the agricultural department to come out with a specific scheme to assist those genuine farmers.

“Rubber smallholders are also facing problem with the quality of seedlings provided through the agricultural department.

“Many of the seedlings cannot grow properly or simply die after planting. Replacement seedlings should be supplied immediately to replace dead seedlings.

“Farmers must be advised and given technical training assistance so that they can produce their own seedlings with quality ‘bud eyes’ taken from reputable suppliers of high-yield rubber clones,” he added. -----The Free Malaysia Today

Clonal Rubber Seeds do not exist

Media Statement by Baru Bian

13 January 2012

Clonal Rubber Seeds do not exist

I refer to an item in the Borneo Post dated 11 January 2012 page D1 headlined ‘15 million 1Malaysia Rubber Clone Seeds for adoption’ in which the DLT Group of Companies is reported to be offering 1Malaysia Rubber Clone Seeds for adoption to any interested farmers in the state under the Rubber Seeds Adoption Programme purportedly “the fruit of work, research and development”. This is also reported in Sin Chew Daily on 11 January 2012 at page 7.

I have been informed by highly knowledgeable consultants that there is no such thing as a ‘clonal seed’ because any seed produced by the cloned tree does not necessarily bear the characteristics of that clonal parent. All the seed produced from a clonal tree will be different and not necessarily of good quality. It is therefore not accurate to say that the seed are of the 1Malaysia clone or better than any other rubber seed produced from any other rubber tree whether it be cloned or not.

I was informed that the DLT Group of companies is willing to let farmers have the seeds for free but that in order to produce clonal plants for planting and production they must grow the seeds and then graft buds onto them of legitimate clones such as 1Malaysia, PB260, RRIM2023 etc. etc. From where do the DLT Group of Companies expect the farmers to obtain the buds and how much will they have to pay for them? Will the DLT Group of Companies also be supplying buds free of charge?

I would like to advise all farmers that they need not get seed from DLT or any other company or Government Department as all they need to do is collect any seed from any type of rubber tree growing in the jungle, grow it on until it has the stem size of a pencil and then graft onto it a bud from a legitimate and certified clone that is produced from a budwood nursery.

It has been made known to me that the DLT Group of Companies is one of the licensees of the Malaysian Rubber Board who are licensed to produce the 1Malaysia clones and therefore presumably budwood. They would presumably have received some funding from the Board to carry out the production. I would like to propose supplying deserving farmers subsidized or free of charge-cloned buds. At the same time it is crucial that RISDA educate these farmers to do this cloning process.

Something does not seem right in this whole scenario. Firstly, the role of the Rubber Board, if I’m not mistaken, is to help the rural people who wish to plant rubber trees and make some money from the latex. Why then have two private companies been chosen to adopt 1 million and 700,000 seeds and an individual 1 million seeds? This is helping the big players and not those people who truly need the help. Where does this leave the farmer who has a small plot of land?

Secondly, the way which the DLT Group of companies is conducting their business causes me great alarm as a lot of the farmers will be misled by the claims that they will be given the 1Malaysia clone seeds. After they have been given the seeds, from where will they obtain the high quality buds that they need to graft onto the plants that they grow from these seeds to produce plants for establishment in their smallholdings?

From the press report it appears that the said 1Malaysia clone is very good. It would be helpful to all if Dr. Luhat could furnish us with the performance data of this clone as recorded and reported from field trials in Sarawak and which have been conducted by a reliable testing organization in this State. This would give credence and confidence to all interested parties especially the poor rural farmers. Our rural folk just want to be able to get some good and reliably certified rubber clones so that they can work towards self-sufficiency.

Baru Bian
State Assemblyman
N70 Ba’ Kelalan