GUA MUSANG, April 15 (Bernama) -- Malaysia will expand its rubber cultivation area to 1.2 million hectares by 2020 under the rubber industry development plan.
Deputy Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Datuk Hamzah Zainudin said the move would enhance national productivity up to 2,000 kilogrammes per hectare per year.
"Presently, productivity at the national level is 1,450 kilogrammes per hectare per year and the target will generate higher incomes for all rubber holding operators," he said when opening the Malaysian Rubber Board (MRB) Technology Day at the Kampung Baru multipurpose hall near here Friday.
At the function, Hamzah also distributed 2,500 sacks of rubber fertilizer worth RM200,000 to 400 smallholders.
He said that in line with the MRB Technology Day, the ministry was encouraging rubber growers to enhance knowledge so that the goal would be achieved.
The escalating rubber prices presently were also a blessing for the smallholders, he said, adding that the price of SMR20 rubber grade yesterday was RM15.37 per kilogramme.
"If the rubber smallholders care to make use this opportunity by producing high quality rubber, they can fetch a price of RM17 per kilogramme," he said.
Hamzah also urged the Kelantan government to allocate agricultural land in a fair manner to the people, instead of confiscating land that had been developed by the people and then handing it over to some companies.
"The state leadership should have gone to meet the people on the ground to resolve this problem and should not have seized the people's land indiscriminately," he said.
On March 29, over 100 settlers of the Kelantan Selatan Development Authority in Jeram Tekoh here alleged that the state government had grabbed the land they had worked on to grow rubber over 20 years ago and gave it away to other individuals.
-- BERNAMA
(Source: http://www.bernama.com/bernama/v5/newsindex.php?id=579482)
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