About 40% of rubber plantations nationwide inactive or inconsistent, says Zuraida

About 400,000 hectares or 40% of the total rubber plantations operated by smallholders nationwide have been found to be inactive or not consistently producing rubber, says Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Zuraida Kamaruddin.

She said if the all of the 150,000 smallholders of rubber plantations were managed efficiently and consistently, RM30 billion worth of rubber production could be generated.

“Right now we estimate there are 40% whose results are inconsistent, sometimes active, sometimes inactive… as such, we want to coordinate these inconsistent rubber areas to ensure their production continues to be consistent to increase yields.

“Among the reasons why these rubber plantations are inactive or production is inconsistent is because no one is tapping, smallholding owners are old and no one wants to manage the plantation,” she told reporters yesterday.

She said the ministry and related agencies are looking for ways to resolve the issue, among others by creating cooperatives in the rubber plantation areas identified to bring smallholders under one entity.

She said through this method, the cooperatives created could act to manage inactive or inconsistent rubber plantations so that rubber production could be optimised.

“So this cooperative can explore and identify rubber plantations in the area and discuss with landowners so that the cooperative can take over the management of these inactive plantations,” she said.

If all smallholders’ rubber production could be optimised, the country’s natural rubber and rubber products export revenue could be more than the RM71 billion recorded last year, she said.