FELDA Sungai Tengi is the site of a pilot project aimed at increasing the income of the settlers as the new government attempts to turn around the ailing land reform scheme that was allegedly mismanaged by the previous administration.

The pilot programme, which starts in April, will see the Hulu Selangor settlers planting quick-yielding food crops such as fruits and vegetables to supplement their income which has taken a hit due to the global drop in palm oil prices, said Farmer’s Association Board chairman (LPP) Mazlan Aliman.

Transforming the Felda scheme, which has close to one million individuals in 112,000 settler families, was a key election promise of Pakatan Harapan which had allowed the coalition to increase its support among settlers’ children, known as second generation settlers.

Rural Malay areas, including Felda, are the key battleground in the next general election and PH’s chances of winning depend on how successful it is at reviving the rural economy which is based on agriculture, including cash crops such as palm oil and rubber.

Felda settlements are a significant voting bloc in 54 parliamentary seats, which until GE14, were considered strongholds of the former Barisan Nasional ruling coalition. PH managed to win 19 of those 54 seats, largely due to the second generation settlers’ anger at the mismanagement of Felda.

The mixed crop project is also aimed at creating jobs for second generation settlers especially in remote, rural Felda schemes where there is no manufacturing or services industry, said Mazlan, who is also a second generation settler from Kulai, Johor.

“Because even when prices for oil palm are high like at RM400 per tonne (for fresh fruit bunches), settlers’ families still struggle to make ends meet because of the high cost of living,” said Mazlan, who also heads the Council of Felda NGOs.

LPP and the council are targeting second generation settlers, especially the housewives to be the main drivers of the initiative, he said.

“The women of Felda, especially housewives, usually have free time between 8.30am and 11.30am. This time could be used to tend to supplementary crops and community gardens.”

For a start, settlers in Sungai Tengi will plant crops such as bananas, plantains and pineapples which can be harvested in four to six months.

“If the women and men work to sell these crops, they can generate enough income to cover their monthly food bill.”

Not a new idea

During the BN administration, Felda settlers had attempted to plant such supplementary crops on their own 4ha holdings but were forbidden from doing so by the agency tasked with overseeing the plantations.

“In each scheme, there were settlers who attempted to plant supplementary crops on their land and on a scheme’s reserve land which was unused,” Mazlan said.

But their applications to do so were rejected by the Felda management who felt that the scheme should focus only on either oil palm or rubber, as mandated by the Group Settlement Act, Mazlan explained.

“In the past, some of the settlers had gone ahead and planted bananas for instance only to see Felda officers go in and destroy their seedlings.”

But under the new government, the rules have been relaxed as the administration realised that settlers cannot depend solely on palm oil and rubber, whose prices have become volatile.

The price of crude palm oil (CPO) has dropped to a four-year low due to global supply glut and low imports from major consumer countries such as India.

In 2018, the average CPO price declined nearly 20%, or RM551 to RM2,232 from RM2,783 in 2017, according to the Primary Industries Ministry.

Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad recently said that farmers could no longer depend on a single crop for income.

Mazlan said although the pilot project is only going to start in Felda Tengi, LPP has already received a lot of applications from other settlements interested in starting their own small-scale farms.

“In fact we’ve (LPP) even gotten requests from FGV (Felda Global Ventures Holdings Berhad) to come in and help them set up goat and cattle breeding projects in their own plantations,” Mazlan said.

FGVH is a private company that manages oil palm plantations on 335,000 ha of land that is owned by Felda. Unlike Felda’s schemes, FGVH’s plantations has no settlers. – February 10, 2019.