Obtaining accurate cocoa data among problems: Douglas
Published on: Monday, December 22, 2014
KOTA KINABALU: Getting accurate data on cocoa smallholders in the country is one of the problems currently faced by the Ministry of Plantation Industries and Commodities, said its Minister Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas."Shockingly there is a shortage of high quality data. We don't even know the numbers of smallholders at the grassroots. Why? That is a basic issue. They are the constituency that we are looking after and we don't even know their exact numbers."Citing an example, Douglas said he was briefed once in Kuching that there were about 15,000 hectares of cocoa in Sarawak, but at another briefing another figure came out.
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"This is not only a problem faced by the Cocoa Board considering we are planning to implement the cocoa incentive scheme soon. I hope the Cocoa Board can upgrade their data in six months from now and once we have the data it will be easy for (the Ministry) to see how we can assist."Along the way there is going to be some people who will abuse the facilities, so if we don't have the data it will be a problem. "One of our heavy responsibilities is to ensure that smallholders can achieve at least an income of RM4,000 per month by the year 2020 when the national per capita income will not be RM15,000 but US$15,000. "If they cannot get this income by 2020, then there will be a big social gap within the country. Differences in income, that is income gap, is one of the causes of trouble around the world."
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Douglas said this in his speech at a dinner with board members and officers of the Malaysian Cocoa Board's (LKM) at Ming Garden Hotel, here, Saturday.He said the cocoa industry is facing challenges currently because if you look at the 1990s we had about almost 300,000 hectares of cocoa plantation nationwide.
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"I was told this figure has fallen to less than 200,000 hectares, so our challenge is how do return the cocoa industry back to its glory days. I'm sure we can do this."From the Ministry's point of view, we will give the necessary support. Whatever is needed we will try our best to present it. The Ministry will give its support so you can carry out your duties with the best possible facilities," he said.Douglas said cocoa has played a very important role in the nation's economy. "As of last year, the export value of cocoa and cocoa products was almost RM4 billion. So I hope we continue to do our part but as we move along there are various issues that we face."He said he has been going to the ground to visit cocoa smallholding areas around the country and while on the ground he had heard several issues that needed to be addressed."First thing is we have to continue to campaign for cocoa to convince the farmers that cocoa is a crop that can bring them profit and assist them diversify their income. I think that is our first mission. It is not easy to do so. Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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