THE allocations for farmers and fishermen will not lift them out of poverty, said Dr Mahathir Mohamad while debating Budget 2021 for the Agriculture and Food Industries Ministry in the Dewan Rakyat today.

“The allocations are not aimed at improving the existing agriculture policies. They are only bigger sums, given as subsidies.

“There are no specific programmes to help small farmers modernise,” said the Langkawi MP during the committee stage debate on the ministry’s budget.

“Smallholders will not be able to advance themselves if they are left to do things the traditional way and they will always depend on subsidies.”

He said one reason smaller farms are unable to progress is due to the size.

“Take rubber, for instance. The big estates are just one-third of the total rubber holdings but two-thirds of the rubber output come from them and not the smallholders.

“From this data alone, we should have combined all the small holdings into big estates. Left on their own, the smallholders will always depend on government subsidies,” said Dr Mahathir, who heads the Pejuang party.

The former Pakatan Harapan chairman said smallholders should be merged to form estates that are at least 400ha or more.

The estates can then be managed by professionals who can diversify the estates by growing other crops, he said.

The same should be done for the fishing industry.

“It’s good that the allocations have increased from RM500 million to RM1.44 billion but it’s mostly subsidies.

“As such, I find it hard to support this budget without a clear explanation on how it can help eradicate poverty among fishermen and farmers.” – December 2, 2020.