B40 group should benefit from redistribution of GLC land

I REFER to an article on the launching of The Valley in Bentong, Pahang, by Primary Industries Minister Teresa Kok (“‘The Valley’ scales new heights” — NST, March 14)

Maybe the minister should take a leaf out of the page of The Valley’s developer and convert government-linked companies’ landbank or plantations into homesteads or farm sanctuaries.

Allocate 0.4ha or 0.8ha lots for lease, rent or sale to landless people at an affordable price, especially those in the B40 group.

This will help them to break out of the cycle of poverty.

The government should take back land grabbed by people from the previous administration.

The government can redistribute the land to landless farmers and citizens.

They can turn homesteads or farms into farmlands, producing food at an affordable price.

If you buy expensive food at the market, it has nothing to do with farmers, but it has a lot to do with the middlemen who make big bucks.

The government does not need to invoke the Price Control and Anti-Profiteering Act to compel farmers to sell their products cheaply.

Having more such homesteads will boost our nation’s food security.

I believe Malaysia can be selfsufficient rather than being a net importer of food, costing us billions of ringgit annually.

We can bring families together to work in these homesteads, teaching the young to appreciate nature.

It is time to appreciate this land we call home and its abundance of food, and become good sons and daughters of Mother Earth.