Manyin seeks allocation for farm roads in next budget

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Manyin beats the gong to open the seminar. — Photo by Muhd Rais Sanusi

Manyin beats the gong to open the seminar. — Photo by Muhd Rais Sanusi

SERIAN: The federal government is urged to seriously consider allocating sufficient amount of funds in the 2016 national budget for the construction of farm roads to enable smallholders to develop their empty land and plant selected cash crops.

Minister of Infrastructure Development and Communications Dato Sri Michael Manyin said good access roads were needed most to help small farmers achieve the target of earning at least RM4,000 a month.

He said the government through the Ministry of Plantation Industries and Commodities was coming up with various subsidies to help smallholders in the rural areas but that would not help without proper roads to their farms.

“I, therefore, call on the federal government to seriously consider this matter and hopefully they will include it in the coming national budget,” he said when representing Minister of Plantation Industries and Commodities Datuk Amar Douglas Ugah at the opening of the ‘Smallholder Farmers Transformation’ seminar at Kampung Pichin near here yesterday.

He said Malaysia was set to achieve a developed nation status in 2020 and based on the present scenario many people in the rural areas would be in a fix if nothing drastic was done to benefit them because most of the households earned less than RM2,000 a month.

“This is something that really worries us. There is not much problem for the urban community but for the rural people they will surely be in great trouble if they do not buck up within the next five years,” he said.

Manyin, who is Tebedu assemblyman, said the government was aware of this and as such various programmes had been introduced to help farmers increase their household income, including providing subsidies for them to do commercial farming for selected commodities such as rubber, cocoa, pepper and oil palm.

He said among others, the government provided seedlings, fertilisers and cash assistance for them to start their farms.

Unfortunately, he said, many irresponsible farmers would sell them to third parties for quick gain.

Deputy secretary-general (Commodity) of the Ministry of Plantation Industry and Commodities Datuk M Nagarajan and Malaysian Pepper Board director-general Datuk Grunsin Ayom were among those present at the function.

The seminar was organised by the ministry in collaboration with the various related agencies.