Such an initiative, he said, would be similar to the role Petronas played in managing the petroleum industry.

“This matter can be considered by the government since we already have a lot of agencies and government-linked companies that can be given the mandate,” the party’s incoming deputy president said.

Rafizi said that Felda subsidiary, Felda Technoplant, which had been managing land belonging to settlers, could play a role in this initiative.

Felda Technoplant, he said, could identify suitable plots of land and types of crops as well as come up with various schemes for the settlers.

He also said that the Felda farmlands that were leased to FGV Holdings Berhad (FGV) could be converted to agricultural land to plant food crops.

Rafizi said that Putrajaya should have no problem executing these measures since they have the power to convert the status of land usage.

Last month, Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob revealed that state governments had agreed to allocate more land for agriculture.

Use land to plant food crops, instead of palm oil

On a separate issue, Rafizi called for a pivot in land usage in the country, from oil palm usage to food crop plantation.

The former Pandan MP made the call in view of the fact that five million hectares of land in Malaysia were used to grow oil palm, compared to 700,000ha of land used to grow food crops.

This pivot, added Rafizi, can only work if Putrajaya takes charge of the efforts to convert land usage for oil palm plantations to food crops by coming up with policies.

“If the government did not do it (policies), it (the pivot) would not work,” he said.

Currently, such a pivot is underway in Sarawak, where the state is limiting the usage of land for planting oil palm trees and switching to the food industry, according to state premier Abang Johari Openg.