Malaysia was once a full fledged agricultural nation; producing commodities such as rubber, paddy, pepper. The came the palm oil revolution during the early 70's which saw changes in the country's setting and brought wealth (sic ??) to smallholders. The 80's onwards was the crossroad towards achieving industrial status; the government through MITI and MIDA were engrossed in obtaining foreign investments in the manufacturing sector. Likewise, all the State Goverments rushed in to established industrial estates with the hope of attracting these investors; it paid well for most of these states ....... if not all! Most international organisations such as the World Bank, OECD, IMF, UNCTAD etc praised Malaysia for its success!!!! That's a good job done by Tun Mahathir.
As a result of that, most land in Malaysia now are either planted with oil palm, rubber or turned into industrial estates not to mention residential and bussines enclaves. The less attractive agricultural procduce like paddy, vegetables fizzles away resulting in less production of such. And now we are facing the problem of insufficient supply of food. Malaysia is now the net importer of food items - in excess of RM 20 billion a year and on the increase.
Couple of years ago, the Mahathir administration launched the Third National Agricultural Policy with the emphasis to transform and modernise agriculture sector to be on par with agriculture activities in the developed nations. Efforts were channelled to increase productivity in certain choice produce and to make Malaysia self sufficient in certain other agriculture products.
When Abdullah Badawi took over the helm, his administration advocated the motto AGRICULTURE IS BUSINESS - a notion that labels all agriculture activities, especially the production of food products in Malaysia be treated as a business concern rather than a mere subsistent role. All is well, is it or isn't it?? These policies are being promoted at the federal level by the federal government. What about the State Governments? How do they perceived these policies and plans ? For all we know, as specifically spelt in the Federal Constitution, land is a State matter. In order to transform amd modernise these agricultural activities, one has has to look at land matters for all intent and purposes.
Most vegetable farmers in Malaysia are tilting on small plots of land illegally that are either still government's land or land already alienated to others. Their application for land titles and hence land ownership are usually fallen on deaf ears. At least 2 State Governments that i know of have a policy that agricultural practices of non-perenial plants and aquaculture practices (rearing of tiger prawns, freshwater fish, brackishwater fish & prawns and ornamental fish) can only be given land on TOL basis. TOL is Temporary Occupying Licence. These farmers were given only a specific number of years to yield their produce; some were given TOL only for a year!
Land on TOL is not bankable at all; meaning that the bankers would not accept these TOL land as collateral for loan applications. As such, these farmers make use of the land as it is and employ minimum investment. Worst still for those farmers who illegally toil others land!!!! How are these farmers able to transform and modernise themselves????
At the state level, there's hardly any concrete programmes to really promote the aims and objectives of the New Agriculture Policy especially pertaining to land law and practices.
We've yet to hear news from the "opposition"-led State Governments on this aspect.
As a result of that, most land in Malaysia now are either planted with oil palm, rubber or turned into industrial estates not to mention residential and bussines enclaves. The less attractive agricultural procduce like paddy, vegetables fizzles away resulting in less production of such. And now we are facing the problem of insufficient supply of food. Malaysia is now the net importer of food items - in excess of RM 20 billion a year and on the increase.
Couple of years ago, the Mahathir administration launched the Third National Agricultural Policy with the emphasis to transform and modernise agriculture sector to be on par with agriculture activities in the developed nations. Efforts were channelled to increase productivity in certain choice produce and to make Malaysia self sufficient in certain other agriculture products.
When Abdullah Badawi took over the helm, his administration advocated the motto AGRICULTURE IS BUSINESS - a notion that labels all agriculture activities, especially the production of food products in Malaysia be treated as a business concern rather than a mere subsistent role. All is well, is it or isn't it?? These policies are being promoted at the federal level by the federal government. What about the State Governments? How do they perceived these policies and plans ? For all we know, as specifically spelt in the Federal Constitution, land is a State matter. In order to transform amd modernise these agricultural activities, one has has to look at land matters for all intent and purposes.
Most vegetable farmers in Malaysia are tilting on small plots of land illegally that are either still government's land or land already alienated to others. Their application for land titles and hence land ownership are usually fallen on deaf ears. At least 2 State Governments that i know of have a policy that agricultural practices of non-perenial plants and aquaculture practices (rearing of tiger prawns, freshwater fish, brackishwater fish & prawns and ornamental fish) can only be given land on TOL basis. TOL is Temporary Occupying Licence. These farmers were given only a specific number of years to yield their produce; some were given TOL only for a year!
Land on TOL is not bankable at all; meaning that the bankers would not accept these TOL land as collateral for loan applications. As such, these farmers make use of the land as it is and employ minimum investment. Worst still for those farmers who illegally toil others land!!!! How are these farmers able to transform and modernise themselves????
At the state level, there's hardly any concrete programmes to really promote the aims and objectives of the New Agriculture Policy especially pertaining to land law and practices.
We've yet to hear news from the "opposition"-led State Governments on this aspect.
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