Rubber -- one-way ticket out of poverty

from The New Straits Times

By : Roy Goh

PITAS: Mokujim Limikai was living in extreme poverty until three years ago when things began to change for the better.

The 50-year-old Rungus man was shortlisted for a government scheme to plant rubber, something which he tried, and since then he has been earning money regularly.

The Kampung Timboi Dagang resident now owns a motorcycle, television and radio -- items he never dreamt of having.

Mokujim is among 1,600 heads of families from 90 villages who own plots of land planted with rubber trees in the Bengkoka peninsula under a RM100 million federal scheme implemented by the Sabah Rubber Industry Board.

Launched by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi in June 2006, 10,000ha will be developed in stages over five years under the agropolitan scheme specifically aimed at eradicating poverty. So far, more than half the land has been cleared for planting.
At the time of the launch, Abdullah had announced the National Mission, a comprehensive framework towards achieving Vision 2020.

One of the five main thrusts was to address socio-economic inequalities, hence the approach to eradicate poverty as well as reduce income and employment disparities.

Poverty eradication will be among the key focus in the Sabah Development Corridor initiative, which will be launched on Jan 29, and the Bengkoka peninsula rubber- planting success will be replicated statewide to reach out to more hardcore poor.

A similar project to plant rubber has been launched in Pulau Banggi involving 1,000 families, Tongod (2,200 families) and Beluran (2,977 families).

"I grew up planting rice on the hills in my kampung, and until five years ago, it was the only thing I could do to feed my family. To earn money, I had to scour the nearby jungles for fruits, rotan, maybe some timber, fish or wild animals for sale at the Kanibongan market," Mokujim said.

"The quantity of products for sale would depend on the amount that we could carry on our backs and walk to Kanibongan, which takes about three to four hours. Now, with the road, it takes only 15 minutes on my motorcycle.

"It was hard to send my children to school back then because I had very little money to spare, let alone buy things like a radio," said the father of six.

"I am grateful for this project because I earn a few hundred ringgit a month for the work I do on the plots allocated for our village, and once the trees are matured for tapping, we will get to own the holdings," he said.

Another Rungus villager who has benefited from the scheme, Janitah Ansong, 36, said she had her doubts when the government told them they would clear the land near her house and plant rubber trees.

"We earned our living from the jungle then, the way our ancestors did. I was sceptical because the area they cleared included my rice field," said the mother of three, who now says it was all worth it.

"I'm paid up to RM500 for the work I do on the land, such as slashing, planting or even when I spray pesticide," Janitah said.

Under the scheme, each family is allocated four hectares and would be paid for maintaining their plot. The trees planted are of the "timber latex" clone which can be harvested as rubber wood after 15 years.

According to the Sabah Economic Planning Unit, the poverty rate in Sabah stood at 24.2 per cent. The state wanted to cut the figure to less than nine per cent by 2015 and five per cent by 2020.

The Rural Development Ministry has identified 21,568 households under the hardcore poor category in the state, of which 13,837 are productive, 3,715 non-productive due to old age and 4,014 with disabilities.