The Plantation Industries and Commodities Ministry has directed all its agencies to assist smallholders in registering for the Budi Agri-Commodities assistance programme.
This initiative is expected to increase the number of applications, as many smallholders were previously unaware of how or where to apply.
According to Buletin Utama, Plantation Industries and Commodities minister Datuk Seri Johari Abdul Ghani highlighted the importance of this programme, noting that many smallholders failed to register, due to a lack of knowledge or access to technology.
"When the price of diesel increases, they are supposed to get subsidies, but they don't know how to apply, they don't have access, they don't have computers, so we are going down to help," he said after the Contribution Ceremony for IPTA & IPTS Students Series 2/2024, at Dewan Yayasan Bena Nusa, Taman Maluri, today.
To address this, the ministry has mandated that its agencies actively help these smallholders by inputting their data into the online system.
On Thursday, Johari said only 16,000 out of 300,000 eligible smallholders have applied for the assistance which offers a monthly incentive of RM200, as of Aug 13.
The low application rate is attributed to a lack of information and access to necessary tools.