For rubber, he said the ministry will continue to actively help smallholders through various incentives to increase the country’s natural rubber production.
“Active smallholders, who produce 348,000 tonnes of rubber, will be assured of getting the incentives we provide, such as rubber production incentives and latex production incentives, and we will introduce the use of new technology. Additionally, good agricultural practices, such as quality fertilizers, will increase latex production, as well as good seedlings,” he added.
Johari said the downstream industry requires 1.6 million tonnes of natural rubber, but smallholders only produce 350,000 tonnes. Therefore, Malaysia has imported rubber from countries such as Vietnam, Thailand, and Ivory Coast to meet the demand.
According to him, the Malaysian Rubber Board (MRB) will actively conduct research to produce new high-performance rubber clones with strong disease resistance. “One day, when we have these (good) clusters, it will help reduce imports from abroad,” he said.
Source: NST
