KUCHING: Sarawak wants the Malaysian Rubber Board to provide technical advice and high-yielding rubber clones and planting materials for rubber smallholders in the state.
Deputy Chief Minister Tan Sri Alfred Jabu said the state needed to accelerate the development of high-yielding rubber in the next nine years to eradicate poverty.
“This will enable the state’s rural population to contribute towards Malaysia becoming a developed nation by 2020,” he said during a visit to the Rubber Research Institute in Sungai Buloh, Selangor, recently.
The national goal of achieving a high-income economy must be given priority in Sarawak, particularly among the rural population which is comparatively less developed, he added.
Jabu, who is also Modernisation of Agriculture Minister, led a delegation from his ministry and the State Agriculture Department on the visit.
They met Malaysian Rubber Board director-general Datuk Dr Salmiah Ahmad to discuss how the board could assist the state.
During the visit, Jabu urged the board to use agricultural stations in Sarawak, such as the one in Sungai Paoh, Sarikei, for high-yielding rubber nurseries in anticipation of an increasing demand for planting materials for the smallholders rubber planting programme in the next nine years.
He called on the board to increase its staff strength by establishing an office in Betong, where the Agriculture Department planned to establish rubber nurseries to complement the Layar Integrated Agriculture Station.
(Source: http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2011/5/21/sarawak/8727811&sec=sarawak)
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