PADANG BESAR: The ringgit's depreciation has led to a notable hesitance among foreign rubber tappers to return, resulting in numerous untapped rubber estates nationwide.
The situation has driven the Rubber Industry Smallholders Development Authority (Risda) to look for the best initiative and mechanism to motivate local rubber smallholders to return to working on their estates.
Risda Board member Ruzaini Rais said a large number of rubber estates have been left idle since 2019.
"Many foreign workers are reluctant to return to this country to tap rubber trees following the depreciation of ringgit currency.
"Based on data at hand, there were 409,000 hectares of rubber estates nationwide that were left untapped in 2019, and the number had increased by 30 per cent to 533,000 ha last year.
"This situation has led to the decline in natural latex production from 469,000 metric tonnes recorded in 2021 to 377,000 metric tonnes last year, a drop of 19.7 per cent, resulting in the unsustainability of the country's rubber industry and affecting the future of rubber smallholders community," he told reporters after attending Perlis-level Rubber Productivity Enhancing Programme in Beseri here today.
He added that Perlis is also not spared from the declining rubber production trend, as from the total 9,990 ha of rubber estates in the state, about 4,011 ha are left untapped due to workforce issues.
"Hence, Risda has devised various initiatives, including incentives to encourage rubber smallholders to return to working on their estates.
"We have identified five initiatives, and one of them is offering RM7,800 incentives to rubber smallholders from level one to level five in the form of pesticides, fertilisers and tools to rehabilitate the rubber trees," he said.
He added that the government was also focusing on increasing the selling price of scrap rubbers from RM2.50 per kg to above RM3 per kg.
"If we can do that, we hope to motivate the rubber smallholders to improve their productivity while reducing dependency on foreign labourers," he said.
During the programme, Ruzaini presented productivity enhancement, production and development incentives for rubber smallholders in the state.
He said Risda had allocated RM100,000 to rubber smallholders in Perlis to motivate them to improve their production.
