KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 14 (Bernama) -- The Malaysian commodity industry needs atotal restructuring that would benefit the smallholders, said PrimaryIndustries minister Datuk Seri Dr Lim Keng Yaik.

He said the ministry was currently working on the proposal which would besent to the Economic Planning Unit (EPU) soon.

He told this to reporters after the ministry's Hari Raya gathering heretoday.

Dr Lim said the Primary Industries ministry needed the cooperation ofother ministries such as the Ministry of Land and Co-Operative Developmentand Ministry Rural Development to work on the programme.

"It is difficult for the ministry to work alone as certain issues aredirectly under the other ministries' power," he said.

Smallholders are facing a lot of problems these days due to the changingtimes, Dr Lim said.

He said as smallholders' earnings were based on prevailing market prices,the lower prices of commodities impacted their earnings negatively.

When the price of a commodity goes down, the smallholders suffer a lot asthey own only a small piece of land, he said.

He said at present many of the smallholders' land were not economicanymore compared with 30 years ago.

Furthermore, funds set up to help smallholders expand their landbank orfund their technology needs are also small, thus limiting their expansionplans, he said.

Dr Lim said these problems needed to be addressed as they involved thenation's economy and rural area social development.

If changes are not made, by 2020 the role of smallholders might be totallywiped out, he said.

In a statement given out during the press conference, the ministry saidthat the percentage of smallholders were about 85 percent in the rubberindustry, 45 percent in the palm oil industry and 95 percent in the cocoaindustry.

Meanwhile, the Primary Industries Ministry has also organised a programmecalled "Hari KPU Bersama Pelanggan" beginning Jan 18, 2002.

Dr Lim said the programme will be conducted every third Friday of themonth and those who want to discuss any issue related to the commoditysector could contact the ministry's public relations office at the 6thfloor of Menara Dayabumi.-- BERNAMA