KUALA KANGSAR: The Malaysian Rubber Board (MRB) has urged the 152,000 rubber smallholders who have yet to apply for the monsoon season aid (MSA) to do so before Jan 31, 2018.
MRB Deputy Director-General (Policy and Operations), Dr Suarni Sumormo said out of the total figure, some 15,839 smallholders who had not submitted their applications were from Perak.
“There’s 483,941 smallholders across the nation who are eligible to get the MSA.
“The government has allocated some RM261 million to help the smallholders who had been affected by the monsoon season,” he said.
He was speaking to reporters after the launch of Perak state level Bumiputera Rubber Entrepreneurs Organisation (BREO) together with MRB and briefing on the MSA to the smallholders in this district, here today.
The ceremony was officiated by Lenggong Member of Parliament, Datuk Dr Shamsul Anuar Nasarah.
Suarni said the MSA registration was implemented at the end of September last year, and since then, a total of 330,000 smallholders had received the assistance involving an allocation of RM174 million.
He also gave the assurance that MRB with the cooperation of the Rubber Industry Smallholders Development Authority (Risda) would resolve the difficulties faced by the applicants.
Meanwhile, Shamsul Anuar said with the formation of BREO, the organisation would identify the projects that could be implemented to help the rubber smallholders.
“In the current economic condition, we must diversify our economic activities, including getting involved in the small and medium enterprise sector based on rubber,” he added. — Bernama
