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BUSINESS • 08/09/2026 12:53 PM

Govt Studying Ways To Boost Smallholder Income, Ensure Agri-Commodity Drives Growth - PM Anwar

PUTRAJAYA, Sept 8 (Bernama) -- The government is studying ways to increase the income of smallholders and ensure the agri-commodity sector continues to drive the country’s economic growth, said Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.

Anwar said the government will continue to strengthen the agri-commodity sector through higher productivity, technology use, and developing a more resilient value chain.

He said the priority is poverty eradication, followed by assisting small businesses and traders.

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“From stalls to restaurants and to small traders, their problems are increasing,” he said at the Plantation and Commodities Ministry’s (KPK) monthly assembly today.

The prime minister said the government’s initiatives include empowering downstream agri-commodity entrepreneurs (RM17.05 million), the Agro-Commodity Sector Disaster and Disease Control Fund (RM28.57 million), the Smallholder Farm Road Programme (RM100 million), and the Smallholder Oil Palm Replanting Financing Incentive Scheme (TSKPS) 2.0 (RM280.03 million).

He added that the replanting programme will also continue to help raise productivity and income for smallholders in the long term.

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Anwar said the smallholder road projects are expected to directly increase smallholders’ productivity, especially by providing basic infrastructure that meets the needs of farming areas.

Meanwhile, Anwar, who is also the finance minister, said the government is also paying attention to rubber smallholders by increasing the Rubber Production Incentive (RPI) twice under the MADANI administration.

He noted that the RPI rate, which was RM2.50 per kilogram (kg) in 2019, rose to RM2.70 per kg in 2023 and then to RM3.00 per kg in 2024.

For smallholders in the palm oil sector, Anwar said the government improved the replanting financing approach from 100 per cent loans to a hybrid method starting in 2024, which is 50 per cent grants and 50 per cent easy loans at an interest rate as low as two per cent, involving an allocation of RM100 million.

He said the government has also increased the allocation for maintaining plantation roads nationwide to RM50 million in 2026, up from RM8 million in 2022.

He added that as of September 2026, some 270,000 smallholders, including small palm oil, rubber, cocoa, pepper, and kenaf farmers, received a monthly cash assistance of RM400 under the BUDI Agri-Commodities programme.

-- BERNAMA

 

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