Felda also found itself struggling with land approvals and allocations by the state governments, limited government funding of projects,as well as inadequate resource capabilities and qualified personnel in agricultural development.

On top of this, the settlers found themselves carrying out land clearing and building their own houses.

In 1961, the Land Development Act was amended to grant Felda developer status of land for settlers. Felda subsequently took over the management of all land schemes from the state boards and land development work in the country.

Felda's success was explosive. By the early 1990s, poverty had receded and the government decided to stop new intakes of settlers.

Of the 350,000 hectares land developed by then, 225,000 hectares in Peninsular Malaysia and 125,000 hectares in Sabah and Sarawak were being managed by Felda as commercial estates.

At the same time, the existing estates matured and Felda began reaping the rewards of higher crude palm oil and rubber prices.

Its rapidly expanding coffers inspired Felda to broaden its plantation operation into other agro-based related sectors. And so in 1996, Felda Holdings was established.THE END

Source: Free Malaysia Today