NCR landowners asked to join oil palm scheme

by Rintos Mail, reporters@theborneopost.com. Posted on April 12, 2014, Saturday

KUCHING: Native Customary Rights (NCR) landowners in Saratok are encouraged to participate in the Malaysian Palm Oil Boards (MPOB) oil palm mini-estate planting scheme.

Social Development Minister Tan Sri William Mawan said the scheme is the best opportunity for smallholders to develop their NCR land.

He called oil palm the best cash crop, saying its development is very reliable.

Although its capital outlay is quite substantial, the government, through the MPOB is doing its level best to help the people who want to develop their own land. The initiatives by the government I believe will enable the landowners to benefit from their customary asset, he said yesterday during a courtesy call by applicants from Saratok for the scheme.

The Saratok member of parliament, who endorsed his visitors application forms, said there is no acquisition of land under this scheme so the land and mini-estates would belong fully to the landowners.

He stressed that landowners need not worry about their land as there would be no land grab by the government as often alleged by some quarters.

MPOB, he explained, would only assist the landowners with aid in terms of land clearing, seedlings, fertilisers and pesticides.

The scheme is financed by MPOB, while the mini-estates belong to the landowners, said Mawan.

Saratok parliamentary constituency special affairs assistant officer Wilfred Empati said MPOB would assist each landowner with RM9,000 in kind per hectare, while each applicant must have at least 5ha to be eligible and the applications must be made in groups.

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NCR landowners asked to join oil palm scheme