RM6.69 mln for rubber planting in Penampang

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PENAMPANG: The Plantation Industries and Commodities Ministry has agreed to approve an additional allocation of RM6.69 million to finance a new rubber planting project on 1,000 hectares in Penampang district.

Announcing this, minister Tan Sri Bernard Dompok said the Sabah Rubber Industry Board (LIGS) had been entrusted with the project implementation.

Earlier, he said a RM43 million allocation had been approved and distributed to develop rubber cultivation on 6,392 hectares statewide, including 689.47 hectares in Penampang under the rubber National Key Economic Area (NKEA).

The addition brings the total area in the district to 1,689.47 hectares and the total NKEA allocation for Sabah to RM40.5 million, he said in his speech at the launch of the Penampang district NKEA programme at Kampung Timpangoh, Sugud, near here Monday.

“This is one of the programs under the National Key Economic Area for Sabah. In my ministry I am running two NKEA initiatives, for oil palm and rubber. This is part of the rubber initiative being organised in Sabah.

“In Penampang we have planted 1,689 hectares of rubber trees. It is ongoing and hopefully we can achieve the target within this year. The RM6.69 million is for additional area for planting rubber trees. Before this the smallholders were operating below 700 hectares, so now we have given them 1,000 for implementation starting this year.

According to the Penampang member of parliament, the government was also encouraging livelihood projects by urging the people to utilize their lands because it would be a sad day if the people in Penampang had sold most of their lands, thus having to reside somewhere else.

“But of course if the properties here are not developed, I think there would be a lot of temptation to sell, and this is one of the reasons why we encourage the development so not only will it increase the value of the property, it will also be a source of income for the land owners and at the same time encourage the people to hold on to their properties.

“I am encouraging people to make full use of their land. It can be rubber, pepper, cocoa and so on. The message is that we need to fully utilize the resources that we have,” he stressed and added that oil palm is not recommended because there is no mill here.

Rubber, according to him, seemed to be the most suitable commodity because of the topography of the area.

Dompok said Malaysia is very fortunate in having a government that is always concerned about the people’s welfare.

He also refuted opposition’s claim that there was no development in Penampang and this was evident with six ongoing road upgrading projects in the district.

“These charges of no development in Penampang is certainly off the mark and the people themselves can see that there is a lot of work going on here,” he added.

“The upgrading of six roads and these are not cheap and some of the roads connect to other districts and all this. So it becomes more than just roads for the kampung folk, they are access to other kampungs. So this is ongoing,” Dompok said.