GERIK, The government has provided more than RM600 million for the development of rubber smallholders this year, with half of it allocated to accelerate the replanting programme, since the agricultural commodity is typically susceptible to price fluctuations.

Rubber Industry Smallholders Development Authority (RISDA) chairman Datuk Seri Dr Noraini Ahmad said the authority has always opened up space and opportunities for those keen in developing the rubber industry in this country as well as being part of RISDA’s smallholders community.

“Through this campaign, interested parties will receive various assistance programmes that offer up to RM38,800,” she said at the opening of the Risda Entrepreneurs Carnival and the launch of the Replanting Campaign (TS++) for the 2023 Perak state Risda here today.

Noraini, who is also Deputy Minister of Women, Family and Community Development, said that in addition to providing various assistance packages for economic improvement of smallholders, RISDA also opens up the same opportunities to their families.

She said the aid packages were to achieve a target for smallholders to earn an average income of RM4,500 a month per family by the end of 2025, as best as possible.

”Through this target, the entrepreneurship programme has been designed specifically to help rubber smallholders to increase their total household income, not only through plantation products, but also through other businesses and entrepreneurial activities,” she said.

According to her, all smallholders are also eligible to receive entrepreneurship assistance under the Additional Economic Activities (AET) Programme, where they will receive assistance of up to RM20,000 in the form of development materials.

Noraini said that currently, the rubber smallholders sector accounts for 84.2 per cent of the country’s natural rubber production, which shows the dominance of smallholders as the main players.

However, she said smallholders are exposed to various issues, including the instability of market prices, unpredictable weather, technology applications and tree disease attacks that have led to a decrease in rubber productivity.

She also said that these issues had caused the number of uncultivated rubber plantations to increase to 533,000 hectares last year compared to 409,000 hectares in the previous year (2021).

“As a result, the country’s natural rubber production dropped by 19.7 per cent since only 377,000 metric tonnes were produced in 2022 as compared to 469.7,000 metric tonnes in 2021.

“Thus, through this carnival, RISDA continues its mission and campaign to explain assistance packages through replanting and entrepreneurship programmes for the benefit of 552,543 rubber smallholders across the country,” she said.

She said that being aware of the issues, RISDA is now actively implementing the Replanting Campaign or known as (TS++) to ensure that the rubber plantation development agenda can continue to be accelerated.

She said there are many other assistances that smallholders can take advantage after participating in the replanting programme, including assistance from the Mature Rubber Scheme, training and guidance and human capital development from TVET JELITA@RISDA.

Perak RISDA has so far implemented the Rubber Replanting Programme with a value of RM4.68 million involving an area of 671.23 hectares for this year.

This year, a total of RM3.87 million was spent by Perak RISDA to ensure that 507 entrepreneurs under the guidance of RISDA received benefits through AET and the Entrepreneur Development Programme.

Referring to the RISDA Census data, there are 43,537 rubber smallholders in the state and of that number, 34 per cent or 15,190 smallholders are women.

Earlier, six entrepreneurs who received the 2023 Perak State Successful Entrepreneur Award took home certificates and RM500 cash while one entrepreneur who won the state 2023 RISDA Entrepreneur Icon Award pocketed RM700.

Four people received the (Exemplary) Smallholder Award in conjunction with Risda’s (50th) Golden Jubilee and took home a plaque and RM10,000 cash.

Source: BERNAMA News Agency