BY: AFIX REDZUAN
KUALA LUMPUR, MAR 23 : The Federal Government is urged to reinstate aid money for replanting to small farmers at least for RM200 million a year.
Beruas Member of Parliament, Datuk Neh Koo Ham said the allocation for 2017 is only RM30 million, which is an 85 percent reduction.
“This action is like rubbing salt to the wound of almost one million small farmers who comprise of 550,000 palm tree and 450,000 rubber farmers,” he said.
He said, a big portion of the replanting aid money is revenue collected from small farmers out of sale of rubber and ‘bonanza’ tax on sale of palm.
He said, the Federal Government is reminded not to ‘steal’ from small farmers in Malaysia.
Commodity and Farming Industry Minister, Datuk Mah Siew Keong had said before that a total of RM1 billion or an average of RM200 million a year is allocated for replanting aid, in the 10th Malaysia Plan (RMK-10) from 2010 to 2015.
However, for RMK-11 from 2016 to 2020, the Federal Government has planned to allocate only RM540 million or RM108 million a year, equivalent to a 46 percent reduction from RMK-10.
Don’t steal from small farmers
