Felcra short-changing padi farmers, says PKR

The party’s man in Pasar Salak alleges that the government firm pays such a low price that the planters have to live below the poverty line

PASIR SALAK: PKR has urged Felcra chairman Tajuddin Abdul Rahman to investigate complaints by padi farmers in Seberang Perak that the government owned company is buying their produce at a price far below the market rate.

Abdul Razak Ismail, the PKR coordinator for the Pasir Salak parliamentary constituency, said the farmers reported that Felcra was paying them RM1,050 per tonne of padi, which was RM200 to RM250 below the market rate.

There are about 6,000 padi farmers in Seberang Perak. Abdul Razak reckons that each farmer was losing about RM2,800 every time they harvest. According to him, this translates to an income of less than RM700, which is below the official poverty level.

“Felcra should not concern itself solely with profit,” he said. “It has a social obligation to help increase the income of farmers participating in its schemes.”

Felcra Bhd, the former Federal Land Consolidation and Rehabilitation Authority, was corporatised in 1997. Tajuddin became its chairman in 2008.

Abdul Razak acknowledged that the padi farmers could supplement their income by working on the oil palm land allotted to them. However, he said, the income from this source was swallowed up by the high cost of fertilisers they had to buy and the high rental of machinery.

Citing the construction of a RM1 billion office-and-residential complex in Jalan Semarak, Kuala Lumpur, Abdul Razak said Felcra had strayed from its original objective of developing the agricultural sector.

He urged Felda to use some of the “huge funds” available to it to absorb the costs incurred by padi farmers.

Abdul Razak also asked Tajuddin to pressure the Ministry of Agriculture and Agro-based Industry to speed up the release of funds under a government scheme to encourage higher rice production.

According to the Auditor-General’s report released last October, the ministry still owed RM110.67 million to more than 70,000 farmers under the scheme.