Nasrun pledges to tackle problems of oil palm smallholders
Published on: Friday, July 01, 2016
Kota Kinabalu: Newly-appointed Deputy Minister of Plantation Industries and Commodities Datuk Nasrun Datu Mansur pledged to champion the struggles and tackle the problems faced by oil palm smallholders in Sabah.This is because, he said, they constitute 40 per cent of the total oil palm operators and planters in Sabah, with most of them being Bumiputera smallholders who need to be looked after."As we all know, oil palm is the biggest commodity planted in Sabah and the State is also the biggest oil palm producer in the country.
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"The interesting part is that 40 per cent of the planters are smallholders and mostly they are Bumiputera who each has about between 15 and 20 acres of oil palm plantation."I feel called to look into these smallholders who are facing a number of problems as they are fully relying on their oil palm yields and do not work on any other commodities," he said.Nasrun, who is also Silam MP, disclosed this to reporters after paying a courtesy call on Chief Minister Datuk Seri Musa Aman at his official residence at Sri Gaya, here, Thursday.He also expressed gratitude to Musa for recommending his name (Nasrun) to the Prime Minister as well as giving his blessings to his appointment as the new Deputy Minister of Plantation Industries and Commodities.
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Nasrun also thanked Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak for appointing him to the post.As the new Deputy Minister, he felt the onus is on him to study and look for holistic and comprehensive approaches and ways to further improve the production and yield of the smallholders.
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"In my opinion, they are facing many problems…hence, I plan to propose that all these oil palm smallholders merge and form a bigger group so that all these small areas become vast areas and be more viable so that they could have their own mill to process their yields."By doing this, they do not have to go to middlemen as they would already have their own mill when all their lands are combined."However, I realise that there is a logistic problem as their lands are situated quite far from each other. Nonetheless, this proposal needs to be looked into accordingly," he said.Nasrun said the smallholders could form a body or a cooperative so that the Government through the Ministry could channel bigger funding to them, like to build factories and other facilities, and they could generate attractive earnings.In a related development, he said there is a plan to increase the component of palm oil in diesel fuel where presently the component is at seven per cent, increased from five per cent previously."When there is a higher content of palm oil in the fuel, we do not have to export the commodity as there would be a high demand for the commodity in our country and would be profitable for our country."In Europe, the component of palm oil in their fuel is higher like 20 to 30 per cent which will reduce pollution of the environment," he said, adding that Silam has almost a million acres of oil palm plantations.On rubber prices in Sabah, Nasrun said he acknowledged that the price of the commodity is too low compared to the peninsula.In light of this, he said he will look into this issue and find ways to assist the rubber planters and tappers in the State.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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