Rural folk told importance of land documentation

0

Dennis (second right) hands a certificate of attendance to a participant of the programme.

MIRI: Telang Usan assemblyman Dennis Ngau is encouraging the rural folks in his constituency to have their native customary rights (NCR) land documented so that they can be developed on big scale with investors.

With their NCR lands surveyed and demarcated, investors would be attracted to come in and develop their NCR lands on joint venture basis, he said.

“Without valid documents, it will be difficult to move forward when it comes to land development,” Dennis reminded.

Dennis in a photo call with the programme participants.

Speaking when launching the Agriculture Community Outreach Programme (Agricorp) 2020 organised by the Miri Division Agriculture Department at Long Anap in Ulu Baram near here recently, Dennis said he was very aware that certain groups of people with reasons only known to themselves were blocking every attempt to get the NCR lands surveyed by the Land and Survey Department under Section 6 of the Sarawak Land Code.

“It saddens me that these groups had blocked moves and efforts by the community leaders and majority of NCR land owners to have their land documented and titled, to give them the possibility of a better life through their lands,” he said.

“As long as we cannot attract investors to invest and open up large scale plantations close to the rural villages, it is a big challenge to go into farming that could generate better economy for us very rural folks,” he added.

More than 150 villagers from Long Anap, Long Palai, Long Julan and Long Apu attended the two-day one-night programme on rubber, coffee and vegetable farming.

Commenting further, Dennis suggested that the land owners could also develop their land by themselves by adopting modern farming methods in line with the state’s vision to be a net exporter of food by 2030.

“Therefore, what the state government is doing now is to give our farming community the basic knowledge in modern farming with the hope that we the rural folks will look at farming differently to increase our harvests for our own sustenance and for sale to increase our income and uplift our standard of living,” he said.

He informed that more than RM1 billion had been allocated to the Ministry of Agriculture, Native Land and Regional Development to further spur agriculture and livestock farming under the 2021 State Budget.

“Therefore I urged my people of Telang Usan to take these opportunities and seek ways to be part of the state’s efforts to make farming a lucrative business venture,” he said.

He also said they were blessed with wide area of land unlike others who had to rent state land for farming.

At the event, Dennis announced the replacement of Long Anap church roofing and an allocation of RM10,000 for SK Long Anap Parent-Teacher Association to repair the wooden bridge leading to the school.

Also present at the launching ceremony were Miri Division Agriculture Development officer Hadriz Razak, Sarawak Rivers Board assistant controller Leonard Luhat and Long Anap headman Anthony Belarek Sagan.