Government plans to reduce rubber cultivation
PADANG BESAR: The Government plans to scale down rubber planting from 1.4 million hectares to 800,000ha as part of a master plan to re-engineer the agriculture sector.
Rural Development Minister Datuk Azmi Khalid said the Cabinet had directed his ministry and the Primary Industry and Agriculture ministries to conduct a study on redevelopment of the agriculture sector and the rural economy.
He said the study would include focusing on other aspects of the agriculture sector with the long-term goal of achieving parity in the food industry.
Currently, the country's food import bill is RM15bil and the Cabinet wanted food exports to also reach RM15bil, he said.
Azmi said Malaysia was the top global rubber exporter and that rubber contributed RM11bil annually to the country's coffers.
He said this when opening a seminar on upgrading productivity and quality among Perlis rubber smallholders at the Mara Development Institute in Beseri here.
Azmi said the study by a Cabinet joint committee comprising of the three ministries would also touch on a fund to re-engineer rubber planting among smallholders.
He said the study would look at revamping the Rubber Industry Smallholders Development Authority (Risda) to transform it into a lead agency.
He said Risda should be capable of diversifying from rubber to other commodities.
He said that after scaling down rubber planting, 200,000ha of surplus land could be used to plant other commodities which were of commercial value such as wood and herbal plants.
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