Minister: New devt model to benefit NCR land owners

Borneo Post 

August 20, 2010, Friday

KUCHING: The Ministry of Land Development will come up with a new mechanism to develop Native Customary Rights (NCR) land to bring greater benefits to its owners. Minister of Land Development Dato Sri Dr James Jemut Masing said NCR land totalled some 1.5 million hectares in the state but the majority of its owners remained poor. “We will continue to develop NCR land, but my officers will come up with new mechanisms to review how this land could be developed. “You must understand that our NCR landowners continue to be the poorest of the poor in Sarawak. “The objective of the government to develop the NCR land has always been to eradicate poverty,” Masing told reporters at his residence here yesterday.

Two years old Oil Palm grows well in one of the NCR land belongs to small holder

He said under the new mechanism, both the federal and the state governments would provide financial assistance to the stakeholders to develop the NCR land. “Under the present land concept, the NCR landowners have 30 per cent stake, the developers would get 60 per cent and the remaining 10 per cent owned by Pelita (Land Consolidation Development Authority). “But we have seen from 1996 most of these land owners remain very poor because the profit is used to pay back the loans which could be as high as eight per cent per annum,” he said. “The concept would be similar to Felda and Felcra so that NCR land owners will get the maximum benefit, with almost zero interest to be paid back to the government,” he explained.

Masing said the government had targeted to develop some two million hectares of land, most of which would be NCR land, by 2015.

Currently, some 850,000 hectares of land had been planted with oil palm. He said besides oil palm, his ministry would also be focusing on rubber and other cash crops. “But most of the land will be planted with oil palm. This is because there is no more land left in the peninsular and Sabah to increase the acreage of the crop,” he said, adding that the crop would be planted in mini estates with the size of between 200-500 acres.

Masing said one of the challenges of the palm oil industry was its regimented nature. “As such rubber is better. For instance, we don’t have to tap it if it’s raining. Unlike oil palm, we have to harvest it regardless of the weather condition,” he explained. He also explained that his ministry would also have to identify suitable crops for certain terrain.