KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB) has allocated RM205 million to help Felda settlers replant 27,284 ha of unproductive trees, from now until 2020.
Federal Land Development Authority (Felda) chairman Tan Sri Shahrir Abdul Samad said MPOB’s replanting incentive is RM7,500 per hectare. By Felda calculations, the replanting of aging trees with higher yielding seedlings would cost RM12,000/ha, over the span of three years.
“So for this year, the next, 2019 and 2020, MPOB has agreed to channel over RM204.63 million to help replant 27,284ha of aging trees belonging to 8,786 Felda settlers,” Shahrir told reporters in a briefing, here, recently.
Since Shahrir helmed Felda at the beginning of 2017, he has been exploring new ideas with his team on ways to improves the lives of settlers and their families.
Felda, which currently comes under the purview of the Prime Minister’s Department, was set up 61 years ago to champion the socio-economic agenda of providing “land for the landless, jobs for the jobless.”
Shahrir, who used to be MPOB chairman, said there is no need for Felda to reinvent the wheel. “Felda doesn’t need to go it alone, all the time. Settlers can tap into existing replanting incentives provided by MPOB,” he said.
“We need an inclusive approach with the settlers. They deserve the same incentives as independent smallholders to replant their aging trees, so that they can also contribute to the country’s average oil palm yield.
"Felda settlers can meet the future of the world's cooking oil needs by replanting their unproductive oil palms with higher oil yielding strains. These are all linked to sustainable agriculture and sustainable income for their families," Shahrir added.