He said most of the materials used in oil palm planting activities were obtained domestically and only some chemicals and fertilisers, including nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium fertilisers, were imported.

“However, these (fertilisers) do not come from the US,” Bernama reported him as saying in the Dewan Rakyat.

Johari was replying to a supplementary question from Ismail Abd Muttalib (PN-Maran) on the impact of the Malaysia-US Reciprocal Trade Agreement on agricultural input costs.

He also said his ministry is formulating a new scheme to help defray the higher cost of oil palm replanting, previously covered by the government, and this would be implemented next year.

“Smallholders often have difficulty getting loans. I will try to meet bankers to see if the banks can help these smallholders obtain loans by mortgaging their farms. I will try to ask the government to subsidise the interest.

“If the interest is high, the government can try to subsidise 4%,” he said, adding his ministry was still in the process of negotiating this subsidy with the finance ministry.

The government has provided allocations for smallholders under the Smallholder Oil Palm Replanting Financing Incentive Scheme, a hybrid scheme involving a 50% grant and 50% loan.

Johari said this in reply to a supplementary question from Richard Rapu @ Aman Begri (GPS-Betong) regarding the government’s measures to aid smallholders in oil palm replanting in the next five to 10 years.