RISDA RE-PLANTATION EMPTY PROMISE?

By : PETER MARAJIN

I HAVE received various verbal complaints from villagers especially around Kota Belud about the RISDA'S rubber re-plantation or rehabilitation programme that had created serious problems on the land and the rubber-tappers.

Hundreds of hectares of land with rubber trees in Kota Belud alone are affected. Hundreds of families were affected too.

The problem is this, RISDA came to convince the rubber tappers it would undertake rubber re-plantation for them at a no cost. RISDA officers also promised the rubber tappers that they would be given high-quality rubber tree seedlings at no cost at all.

Many rubber tappers were taken by this promise and agreed and signed a contract with RISDA allowing its contractors to fell old rubber trees and do the terracing, as most rubber planted land in Kota Belud is hilly, some very steep.

Now that was two or three years ago. Todate, with the rainy season since last year, many of these terraced land had experienced erosion of soils and landslides, some are very serious indeed, in various kampungs almost hitting the rubber tappers house or their neighbours such as in Kelawat areas. If you go these places, you could easily find those landslides and erosions.

There are still no rubber seedlings supplied as promised, leading to disappointment to many rubber tappers who missed the opportunity when price of rubber latex was high the past two years.

RISDA should address this matter urgently if it is serious to uplift the economic status of Sabahan rubber tappers. The rubber trees would have been at leats two years old now if RISDA planned well its re-plantation programme.

It should be matured for rubber-tapping in four years but now that seem to be unlikely as no prompt seedlings are made available. Many of the terraced lands now are also overgrown with bushes. What a mess made by RISDA.

The only ones who are happy with this situation are the officers themselves, contractors and perhaps a few people who paved the way for RISDA here. I believe RISDA also carried such programmes and failure in other parts of Sabah, and so the hectarage and number of families affected could be much higher. Now could RISDA please explain so as to clarify these mess about.