KUCHING: The Board of Sarawak Land Consolidation and Rehabilitation Authority (Salcra) has approved the payment of dividend to its project participants amounting to RM60.77 million for this year.
Its General Manager, Joseph Blandoi, in a statement today said, the payment was approved during a meeting chaired by its Chairman Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas yesterday.
He said the payment is 80 per cent higher than the RM33.10 million pay-out last year (2020).
A total of 13,176 participants or 93% of total participants, whose lands are in production will receive the payment.
As usual, he said, the payment shall be made in two stages; credited directly to the participants' bank accounts. The first payment shall be in January and the second in July 2022.
Blandoi said the overall performance this year was very much influenced by two major factors, namely the Covid-19 pandemic and palm oil price.
"The pandemic had affected many aspects of Salcra's operations, especially the oil palm estates and implementation of various initiatives to improve performance under the Salcra Transformation Roadmap.
"As most of the workers are foreigners, the recruitment of either new or replacement of the retired ones could not be carried out due to cross-border restrictions. This results in shortage of workers to carry out field operations, especially harvesters," he said.
To cushion the impact, Blandoi said, the management had carried out several initiatives such as focusing on productivity improvement through increased estate mechanisation, especially infield evacuation; engaging contractors and recruitment of local workers.
"These had impacted positively, as despite having 47 per cent of the harvesters' requirement, the production only experienced a shortfall of 38 per cent from target. The favourable crude palm oil price, which hovered above RM3,600 per metric tonne throughout the year, also enhanced the financial performance.
"Moving forward, the management is embarking on three strategies to improve productivity of the estates, namely increasing mechanisation; introducing estate agro-preneur programme to attract local contractors and Compensation and Remuneration of Estate Workers (CREW) to attract local bodies to work in the estates," Blandoi said.
At the meeting, the Board was also briefed on the progress of survey and issuance of titles to lands that are being developed by Salcra.
As of Oct 31, Salcra has developed 27,229 lots comprising 27,198 individual lots and 101 communal lots, with an approximate area of 56,300 hectares stretching from Lundu to Kalaka.
For the individual lots, he said, 21,070 lots (38,870 hectares) or 77% have been surveyed, of which 17,006 lots (32,000 hectares) have been issued with land titles and 4,004 lots are in various administrative stages before issuance of title.
"The balance of 6,128 lots shall be surveyed and expected to complete within two years," he said.