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RAUB, PAHANG, Sept. 6 (The Straits Times / ANN): In the foothills of the interior of Malaysia’s Pahang state, a bitter fight is pitting a large group of unlicensed farmers and a new company owned by the Pahang royalty. by the famous King Musang of the country. durians.
The roughly 1,000 farmers are mostly ethnic Chinese who have been planting durian trees in Raub, a two-hour drive from Kuala Lumpur, for the past four to five decades by clearing government-owned forest land.
Farmers, whose ancestors called Musang King durian, which is widely regarded as Malaysia’s most beloved variant of durian, have said that the state had repeatedly rejected their attempts to independently legitimize their farms over the past 20 years.
In March, the Pahang state government decided to grant the rights to the land currently occupied by farmers to a private entity and a state vehicle, and these two companies, in a joint venture, are offering a legalization scheme whose terms, they say farmers, they are greatly oppressed.
The legalization plan is led by Royal Pahang Durian Produce (RPD) and the Pahang Agricultural Development Authority (PKPP).
The RPD-PKPP joint venture has been granted rights to 2,168ha in Raub for large-scale durian cultivation, and about half of the awarded land is occupied by farmers.
A key RPD proposition is a promise to buy Musang King durians at a fixed price of RM30 (S $ 9.85) per kilo from farmers. This provides a good profit margin, he claims, as the cost of planting durians is only RM8 per kilo.
The firm said in a statement last Tuesday (September 1) that the scheme is a “win-win” proposal for both parties, as farmers will now be able to legally grow their durian trees while RPD buys the king of durian from them. fruits at a fixed price.
“Based on independent verification, the production cost of around RM8 / kg will assure farmers of an expected margin of more than 200 percent,” RPD said.
Farmers also have to pay RM6,000 per year for each acre, or 0.4 ha, of land planted with durian, before the legalization plan begins in 2021.
RPD’s largest shareholders are the Pahang royal family, and Tengku Puteri Iman Afzan, daughter of the Pahang ruler and current Malaysian king, Sultan Abdullah Ri’ayatuddin, is listed as its chairman.
Durian farmers are vehemently against the scheme as they would have to sell durian at a fixed price to RPD-PKPP, as opposed to the current fluctuating market price which they say corresponds to inconsistent production rates of a durian tree. durian. They say the estimated cost price also doesn’t take into account the years it takes for a durian tree to mature.
The hills beyond Sungai Klau, where Musang King durians are planted high up. – The Straits Times / Asian News Network
Farmers have formed the King Save Musang (Samka) Alliance to defend what they see as their rights to cultivated land.
Samka President Chang Yee Chin, who organized the farmers’ protests and led the battle in court, said that the farmers had compromised with the RPD several times and cannot accept the terms of the legalization plan.
He argues that the scheme imposes most of the responsibilities on farmers, limits their profits, and sets unrealistic expectations about the volume of production.
“The produce from a durian tree only lasts three weeks, and they expect the three-week effort to cover the cost of the entire year’s effort,” Chang told The Straits Times.
The farmers obtained a court order against the joint venture moving into their farms after the land office asked the farmers to leave their farms before August 24. The farms are located in the village of Sungai Klau, at the foot of the hills, about 30 km in the heart of a vast agricultural plain in the third largest state of Malaysia.
The case is scheduled to be heard in court on October 28.
However, Malaysian political organizations in Kuala Lumpur have introduced a racial tone into the battle, as most of the farmers are ethnic Chinese.
Parti Islam SeMalaysia has called the farmers “outsiders” and called for action against them, while gathering support for the state government’s stance.
Putra, another Malay political party, has urged the authorities to investigate elements of corruption in the case, and even called for the recovered farms to be declared as Malay reserve land and handed over to army veterans.
But the history of this town in Sungai Klau involves both Malaysian and Chinese settlers, and the farmers are avoiding attempts to turn a legal battle into a racial one. As part of its efforts to eradicate the communist presence in these hills in the 1970s, the Pahang state government, through its agricultural arm, offered 200 Malaysian and Chinese families a home and land to resettle there. .
While the housing concessions and some of the land concessions were granted, many of the settlers have waited for decades to obtain the property titles they were promised.
Agriculture in these hills developed soon after: settlers planted rice, cocoa, papaya, plantain, and other variants of durian, without much success.
In the 1990s, they discovered the Musang King variant, which can be sold today for RM 55 per kilo.
This area now accounts for 60 percent of all Malaysian Musang King exports. Demand is high in China, where the fruit can reach RM 400 per kg. In the first half of 2020 alone, Chinese imports of Malaysian durians were valued at US $ 40 million (Singapore $ 54.5 million).
Currently, the main export destination for durian from Malaysia is Singapore.
According to RPD estimates, the currently disputed lands can produce up to 11,000 tonnes of durian during a good harvest year. Without the support of the state, the farmers had carved their own roads in the hills, as King Musang thrives at an altitude above 350 m.
While the vast majority of farmers are Chinese, there are also 500 Malays from more than 100 families who work these lands.
“This is not a racial problem. All farmers work together and we do not have a racial problem between us. Why make this one?” Malaysian farmer Mohamad Nizam told ST.
His fellow farmer Khairul Zairi asked: “People don’t know that there are Malaysians involved here too. The state land office is not blind, we have been planting here for decades. Why didn’t they give us (the permit)? The proof of all our applications “. – The Straits Times / Asian News Network
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