KUALA LUMPUR - The National Association of Smallholders Malaysia (PKPKM) is asking the government to delve deeper into issues faced by rubber smallholders especially pertaining to the low prices of the commodity.
Its deputy president Adzmi Hassan said that attention to the issue is also necessary considering that the income of rubber smallholders and the prices of the commodity are currently disproportionate to the current cost of living.
"Thankfully, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim indeed understands the people and has a mission to reduce the cost of living and (we) hope that an allocation for this can be maintained in the future.
"Nevertheless, don’t just (give us) a one-off assistance only... there needs to be a way to raise the prices of rubber as well. For example, the government recently announced an allocation for rubber roads, we do not know how this allocation will be translated in the form of a (rubber) price increase,” he told Bernama when contacted.
Adzmi said the rubber road is a good proposal to help smallholders and if it could increase the demand for rubber and raise the prices of the commodity, PKPKM would welcome it.
"It is hoped that the government’s proposed rubber road can be expedited in its implementation. If the price of rubber can be increased to RM4 per kilogramme, there will be many tappers scrambling to tap rubber since they (tappers) are less enthusiastic with the current rubber price of around RM2.90,” he said.
In the 2023 Budget, the government agreed to increase the monsoonal subsidy for smallholders, from RM600 to RM800 for a period of four months, to ease the burden borne by the group of 320,000 with an allocation of RM256 million. - BERNAMA