The Rural and Regional Development Ministry will propose to cabinet several new incentives soon to assist the rubber smallholders who were affected by the intensive decline in the commodity’s prices.
Its Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal said the incentives to be tabled would focus on long-term solutions apart from efforts to raise the prices of rubber in the market.
He said the proposed incentives were still being studies and will be announced as soon as they were approved by cabinet.
“Before this we have given a one-off payment of RM500 to all smallholders when rubber prices plummeted but that was merely a short-term solution,
“We (the ministry) have discussed several steps to boost the rubber industry while reducing the burden faced by the smallholders affected by the low prices,” Shafie told a press conference, here, yesterday.
Shafie said this after chairing a Cabinet Taskforce meeting to raise the income of commodity industry’s small holders at the ministry’s headquarters.