KUALA LUMPUR: The Oil Palm Smallholder Agricultural Input (IPPKS) easy financing scheme was cancelled in June last year due to the low take-up.
The scheme is a cooperation between the Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB) and Agrobank.
Plantation and Commodities Minister Datuk Seri Johari Abdul Ghani said the IPPKS, which began in 2019, had offered financing aid for agricultural input such as fertiliser, pesticide, seeds, equipment and machinery to smallholders.
It was meant to boost yield and productivity by providing access to key plantation resources.
The scheme involved financing at RM5,000 per hectare at a low interest rate of two per cent per annum, and a three-month moratorium.
“Nevertheless, there were only 250 applicants in its five years of implementation. Of the total, 200 were approved, involving 493.07ha,” he said in a written reply in the Dewan Negara.
Johari was responding to a question from Senator Roderick Wong Siew Lead on why the aid scheme, as with the fertiliser and pesticide subsidies channelled by MPOB, was discontinued.
Wong also asked about new aid, programmes and incentives via MPOB to help oil palm smallholders.
Johari said the ministry provided various forms of aid to oil palm smallholders, including the Smallholder Oil Palm Replanting Financing Incentive Scheme (TSPKS 2.0) that began in January last year.
The scheme, he said, was implemented in a hybrid manner, namely 50 per cent via grants and the rest through low interest, easy financing schemes set at two per cent per annum.
Successful applicants are given a four-year moratorium on repayment.
The repayment period is also extensive, spanning 12 years.
“RM100 million had been allocated for the implementation of TSPKS 2.0 in 2024, with a target of 5,900ha of old unproductive oil palm nationwide. The same amount was approved for 2025,” he said.
He added that the ministry had implemented other initiatives as well to boost smallholders’ income and limit high dependency on only oil palm yields.
These include the Crop Integration Scheme and the Livestock Integration Scheme, in effect since 2016.
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