Turning workers to agropreneurs
Salcra to lure local youth to oil palm plantations by carving out lots for them to manage
SEMATAN: Sarawak Land Consolidation and Rehabilitation Authority (Salcra) has set a target of 90 per cent local workers for its oil palm plantations by 2025.
Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas said Salcra would focus on unemployed youths from rural areas.
“To achieve that, we will discuss with the management on how to create an attractive package so that the youth can come in and participate.
“There are various ways to do it. One way is to carve out acreage and let the youth manage it including looking for workers and so on. So a group of them may look after certain areas in a range of between 500 and 1,000 acres where they can plant vegetables and rear livestock to diversify and to increase their income,” Uggah told the media following a Salcra dialogue at the Pueh Youth Training Centre, some 15km from here on Thursday.
Currently around 70 per cent of Salcra’s plantation workers are locals.
The Minister of Modernisation of Agriculture and Rural Economy stressed that those selected for the programme need proper skills and expertise.
“Of course we need to educate them so that they can understand that the job in the plantation is not as dirty as they thought. So maybe we can change their profession from labourers to agropreneurs so that a group of them can manage certain areas. We are working towards it and it’s very hard but I think we must have the target that we can work out,” he said.
Uggah also challenged Salcra’s management and off icers to increase the productivity and yields of their plantations in order to improve the income of participating landowners.
“I was told that in this area ( Sebako plantation) they can achieve between 28 and 30 tonnes of fresh fruit bunches (ffbs) per ha. And from that harvest, they get more than RM4.8 million from the 1,400 ha planted with the crop, that’s almost RM3,500 per ha.
“So if it’s possible here, why is it not possible in any other place? That’s my point. Here, they have set a standard and we must try to fi nd out what is the magic of how they achieved that and if they can do it here that should be translated to other areas,” he stressed, adding that Salcra’s current output is 25 tonnes per ha.
He urged Salcra to be innovative and creative, as well as ready to adopt new methods for better yields and returns.
“We must be innovative and creative and prepare to have some change and prepare to study from past mistakes. People are expecting nothing less and landowners are expecting something comparable to the private sector returns. So that job of Salcra is to make sure it can happen,” he said.
The Sebako plantation, which started in 1995, involves 940 Native Customary Rights ( NCR) landowners from 10 villages in Pueh and nearby areas.
From 1998 unti l last year, participants have received accumulated dividends amounting to RM46.8 million.
So maybe we can change their profession from labourers to agropreneurs so that a group of them can manage certain areas. Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas, Deputy Chief Minister