SERIAN: Rubber clustered planting project at three villages in Serian – Tema Saan, Tema Mawang and Tema Penggal – is expected to increase household income.
Minister of Infrastructure Development and Communications, Dato Sri Michael Manyin said a total of 100 households take part in the scheme by the government will yield lucrative income from the rubber farming.
“They don’t have to worry about the maintenance of their farms as the government will take care 70 per cent of it costing RM1.66 million over six years while the 30 per cent will be borne by the land owners or farm owners.
Manyin revealed this to reporters during his visit to the rubber planting project site at Kampung Tema Saan in Tebedu, Serian, here yesterday.
The Tebedu assemblyman pointed out that the clustered rubber planting project is one of the many projects from the Barisan Nasional government to help the people to increase their income in tandem with the mission to become a high income nation.
He explained that a clustered scheme required a minimum 50 acres of land acquired for the purpose and not necessarily contiguous.
“The land does not necessarily belong to one person. It could be more people who want to jointly develop their land, which will be better as long as they want to grab the opportunity. This will facilitate us to develop their land collectively,” he said, adding that for the villages have a total of 146 hectares of land that are being developed for the rubber farming.
Manyin noted that after six years, the farms will be given back to the individuals or the land owners.
He also hoped that by that time, the price of rubber would have hiked giving better return for these people.
“There were rumours stating that in certain places, a law would be enforced whereby all tyres must be made from pure rubber.
“At the moment, some have found that a lot of vehicle tyres made of synthetic rubber were causing a number of road accidents. The studies are on-going and once implemented, the price of rubber will go up, I believe,” he said, adding that the price will increase because there are not many rubber producing countries.
He also noted that there was no dispute arising from the rubber planting project as all the households that took part in the scheme on their Native Customary Right (NCR) land had agreed with the development.
Manyin, therefore, advised the people, especially the Bidayuh community living in rural areas, to take part in government projects if they wanted to improve their standard of living.
Also present at the site were Serian district officer Sindi Muling and Kampung Tema Saan village chief Radiew Jambu.