Telang Usan rep proposes letter of support to confirm land ownership

MIRI (July 5): A letter of support from the village chiefs may be necessary as confirmation of land ownership for farmers in the interior areas who do not have land grants to obtain government assistance.

Telang Usan assemblyman Dato Dennis Ngau brought up this proposal at the state assembly sitting last May.

“In the last state assembly sitting (in May) I spoke during the debate, asking the state government to see how to help our farmers who want to apply for government assistance, but were subject to the condition that there must be a land grant.

“I suggest, if the land legally belongs to the owner, it may be possible to use a confirmation letter from the village chiefs, which is also supported by the Penghulu, as a supporting document for the application.

“If not, our people in the interior will only see and often be neglected,” he said when sharing the matter with reporters here yesterday.

Dennis, who is also chairman of the Board of Directors of the Baram Area Farmers Association (PPK), said that the issue was one of those raised by members during the Baram PPK annual general meeting (AGM) yesterday, which was also attended by oil palm farmers who were applying for assistance from the Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB).

According to Dennis, most of the land cultivated by farmers including ranchers in the interior areas do not have land grants but are native customary land (NCR) inherited from generation to generation, with most of them still being surveyed by the Land and Survey Department.

“From what I have seen, the rural farming communities are in dire need of government assistance, but most of this government assistance is based on the condition of land grants,” he explained.

In order to enable residents of rural and interior areas to achieve an average family income of RM15,000 per month as envisaged in the Post-Covid-19 Development Strategy (PCDS) 2030, he said they should be actively involved in agricultural activities such as planting oil palm, rubber, pepper and coffee but were denied the opportunity as they were subject to the condition that they must have a land grant when applying for assistance.

Commenting on PPK Baram, Dennis said it was unable to meet all requests and loan applications from members due to financial constraints.

He advised PPK Baram members under the National Farmers’ Organisation (Nafas) to invest in the National Farmers’ Fund (DPK).

“These are various ways members can enjoy the benefits of being a member of a farmers association and one of them is shares,” he explained.

PPK Baram currently has 12,034 registered members and a total of 96 units.