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P16-17 | AGRICULTURE & FOOD SECURITY Malaysia eyes Brazil Malaysia and Brazil are exploring joint R & D between MARDI and Embrapa to advance agricultural technology.
P18-19 | PLANTATION & COMMODITIES Shielded from tariffs The Ministry plans new scheme to help smallholders replant older palms with possible loan subsidies.
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P20 | FOCUS Reclaiming timber Over 1,900 trade visitors and exhibitors from 19 countries signalled rising global interest in Malaysian timber during MWE 2025.
P22-23 | COLUMN Seeing what the eye can’ t Many dangerous pathogens cannot be identified visually, making tools like biosensors essential for early intervention.
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MALAYSIA’ S rubber sector has been speaking to us for years- not through loud collapses or sudden shocks, but through numbers that drift downward month after month. The latest Department of Statistics Malaysia( DOSM) figures only confirmed what rural communities have been feeling on the ground: fewer tappers, ageing trees and plantations slipping into silence.
For too long, rubber has sat behind more glamorous agricultural conversations. Palm oil takes the headlines, durian steals the markets, and food security grabs the national agenda. Yet, rubber remains one of Malaysia’ s most strategic commodities- the backbone of glove manufacturing, engineering goods, mobility, and key export industries. The irony is unavoidable: we export billions in rubber-based products, but we increasingly rely on imported raw rubber to sustain those very industries. This mismatch should concern us. This should worry us— not just economically but for what it says about rural Malaysia. Smallholders rarely stop tapping by choice. Fatigue, low prices, unreliable incentives, or too few young workers willing to take up the knife drive them away. The issue isn’ t just output— it’ s dignity, stability, and whether rural families still see a future in agriculture.
Technologies like Cup Lump Modified Asphalt( CMA) offer a glimpse of what innovation can deliver: reduced labour dependency, new income streams, and ways to modernise an old industry. But innovation cannot stand alone. The country needs a coordinated effort that aligns replanting, labour support, pricing mechanisms, and upstream – downstream planning.
But the heart of the issue remains human. The rubber industry will not rebound if smallholders are left behind. Ensuring better income stability, modernising field practices, and supporting replanting are not luxuries; they are necessities for an industry that supports more than 450,000 rural Malaysians.
Malaysia’ s rubber story is part of our agricultural heritage. Whether it becomes a story of decline or renewal depends on what we choose to do next.
Malaysia must decide whether rubber remains part of its economic future, not just its historical identity.
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