KUCHING: Palm oil smallholders in Saratok are advised to diversity their crop products.
In stating this, Krian assemblyman Friday Belik said this is one of the measures in dealing with the unstable agricultural input prices in the market.
Following the increase in the price of agricultural input such as fertilizer, he said small farmers are forced to bear high costs that are not in line with the prices of the commodities involved.
“The situation is unavoidable given the sluggish world economy and low demand for palm oil in the world market,” he said in a statement posted on his Facebook after attending the Annual General Meeting (AGM) of Koperasi Penanam Sawit Mampan (KPSM) Saratok branch held recently.
Friday then assured that as a wakil rakyat, he will continue to speak out on behalf of smallholders in order to find a suitable mechanism to reduce their burden as he had pointed out in the previous State Legislative Assembly (DUN) sitting.
At the same event, he also allocated a grant amounting to RM20,000 for the cooperative to carry out their activities.