NASH hopes excess of incentives given to smallholder groups

KUALA LUMPUR: The National Association of Smallholders Malaysia (NASH) hopes the excess from the incentive allocated to oil palm smallholders will be distributed to smallholder groups to enable them to develop their business.

The Malaysian Palm Oil Board’s (MPOB) statistics showed that 162 groups were formed and monitored from the total 245,022 smallholders.

NASH President Datuk Aliasak Ambia said there was a surplus from the 100 per cent incentives worth RM130 million given to smallholders for the Malaysian Sustainable Palm Oil (MSPO) licensing purposes.

“The distribution can help the smallholding groups to boost their business, for example, to purchase new machines, seeds or the latest technologies in order to increase their income,” he told Bernama after the Malaysian Sustainable Palm Oil (MPSO) Certification Forum yesterday.

He said the price for one MPSO licence was equivalent to RM130 per hectare (ha) of land and smallholders were those owning 40 ha and less.

Meanwhile, NASH hoped to establish 15 more such groups by year-end and each smallholder group would have 50 to 2,000 people.

On the government’s target to arm 100 per cent of oil palm planters with MPSO certification by Dec 31, 2019, Aliasak said it was impossible as many smallholders still did not understand the advantage of having it.

“It is good enough if at least 40 per cent of them managed to get the certification until the mandatory date,” he added. — Bernama