A LIVESTOCK farmers group has called on the Selangor government to intervene and advise a landowner to cancel eviction notices issued to breeders on its plantations in the state.
Gabungan Penternak Marhaen Nasional coordinator R. Gandi said 176 livestock farmers received the notices instructing them to relocate their cattle and goats by Jan 31.
“The eviction will affect the livelihood of farmers as they have nowhere to continue their livestock farming activities,” he said.
Gandi added that about 5,000 cows and goats were reared across all the farms.
Many of those affected, he said, were generational farmers whose ancestors had worked and lived on the plantations.
“In the 1970s and 1980s, many plantation workers began livestock farming to supplement their income.
“Although there was no written agreement, the landowner had allowed and encouraged such activities at the time,” said Gandi.
However, when the landowner announced a “zero cattle policy” at all its plantations in 2019, the farmers protested.
They then submitted memorandums to the landowner and the government, and have been negotiating the matter ever since.
The latest memorandum, asking for Selangor Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Amirudin Shari to intervene, was submitted at Bangunan Sultan Salahuddin Abdul Aziz in Shah Alam on Jan 22.
The group requested the state to instruct local councils not to assist in capturing cows which were roaming at the plantations.
Instead, they hoped there would be a way to harmonise livestock farming with plantation activities.
“The memorandum also calls on the Selangor government to retract a statement by state rural development, unity, and consumers committee chairman Datuk Rizam Ismail on Dec 18 who said the landowner would order livestock farmers at the Sabak Bernam plantation to relocate their animals by Jan 31.
“But the landowner seems to be using this statement to justify evicting all livestock farms from its plantations in Selangor,” said Gandi.
Following the Jan 22 memorandum, Rizam did not retract his statement but instead issued another one on Jan 23 reiterating that cows were roaming freely at the Sabak Bernam plantation.
In his second statement, Rizam said a meeting was held on Dec 17 between the stakeholders including the landowner. The latter explained that the cattle farms in the plantations were illegal and made a decision to evict them.
Rizam said the state had suggested alternative lands for the affected livestock farms to relocate in ensuring farming activities would continue at a suitable location.
The land options would be to operate using a feedlot system at a site gazetted for Sabak Bernam Veterinary Department in Beting Kepah, Perbadanan Kemajuan Pertanian Selangor land in Sungai Panjang district, and land gazetted for Sabak Bernam Land Commissioner use in Pekan Bagan Terap, he added.
