KOTA BARU, Nov 30 — State Rubber Industries Smallholders Development Authority (Risda) received an allocation of RM3.85 million this year for entrepreneur development programme in Kelantan.

Kelantan Risda director Mohd Zulkifli Hassan said the allocation is for additional economic activity (AET) projects, product development services, halal certification and so on involving 346 smallholder entrepreneurs.

"We will play an active role in helping to increase the income of the smallholders especially in relation to the entrepreneurship through product, marketing and knowledge delivery,” he told reporters at the launching ceremony of the state-level Risda Entrepreneurship Carnival here today.

The three-day programme which ended today was officiated by Deputy Minister of Economic Affairs Mohd Radzi Md Jidin and attended by 38 Risda entrepreneurs.

Zulkifli said through the AET project, Risda targeted that every smallholder family to earn RM4,000 a month.

He said, in general, most smallholders only relied on rubber sales and had no side earning causing them to lose their main source of income if the market price of the commodity dropped.

"We hope with this allocation, they will at least benefit and at the same time have a solution towards the drop in the rubber commodity price,” he said.

In the ceremony, entrepreneurship awards were presented to four Risda entrepreneurs namely Muhammad Shahrul Zakaria (agriculture), Wan Noraizah Wan Abdul Rahman (food business), Nazree Ibrahim (services) and Muhamad Nazeri Che Hashim (production).

For the record, a total of 2,916 smallholder entrepreneurs have benefited from the entrepreneurial assistance from the agency. — Bernama