He said this type of management was practised by huge estates belonging to foreigners since the time of the British colonial administration.

This enabled them to make profits even when commodity prices dropped, though the margins were small, apart from not having to depend on subsidies, he added.

However, he said efforts to convince Felda settlers to go down this road might be difficult in the beginning, especially with the first generation settlers who were now mostly aged above 60.

“They were already (Felda) settlers from the beginning and thus it will be difficult to change their mindset. But they are landowners and if we can get a larger acreage to be managed for them professionally, we are confident of obtaining higher yields.

“The profits can be distributed according to the size of the land they contribute.

“They (settlers) can work with the management on the running of these estates or obtain income based on their land size,” he told a press conference after launching the Felda Settlers Day 2019 celebration in Felda Selancar 3 here today.

Present were Pahang Menteri Besar Wan Rosdy Wan Ismail, Economic Affairs Minister Mohamed Azmin Ali, Felda chairman Mohd Bakke Salleh, Felda general manager Othman Omar and Felda Settlers head Sulong Jamil Mohamed Shariff.

Mahathir said that he was of the view that this should have been done some time back.

Towards this end, Felda would embark on this model where the settlement is at least 404 hectares in size.

The Felda management, the prime minister said, also should no longer depend solely on oil palm or rubber, as was being practised now, so that the settlers’ income was not badly affected when the prices of the commodities dropped.

“Once merged, the size of the estate will be as much as 1,000 or 2,000 acres (404ha to 808ha).

“From this, we might be able to take 80ha to plant other crops. For example, in Pahang, where the land is fertile, water melons and pineapples can be cultivated here.

“We want to avoid depending on a single crop by planting crops that have a higher demand, domestically and internationally, apart from helping the nation’s supply chain,” he said.

Commenting on the types of suitable crops for the new Felda model, Mahathir said the Felda management would be discussing and obtaining the advice of the agriculture and agro-based industry ministry on the matter.

As an example, he sees the planting of mangoes as being suitable for Kedah and Perlis, besides yielding lucrative income for entrepreneurs. Flowers are also high in demand, he added.

Earlier, when speaking before thousands of Felda settlers, Mahathir said the management of Felda should be reshuffled so that the agency is administered by professionals, as practised by large-scale plantation managements, to enable Felda to reap higher profits.

“We see how plantations can give good returns when managed well. However, we found out that recently there were several incidents which did no benefit Felda at all.

“Now, we are shouldering the huge debts as many transactions made before this had deviated (from the original aims). They even carried out projects that are not allowed,” he said.

Mahathir said Felda, which had opened more than 404,685ha of land, is among the largest plantations in the world. However, it is unable to provide a high income to settlers as the previous management is different from large estate managements.

In this regard, Mahathir gave his assurance that the government would try its best to provide a higher income to settlers through its programme of using larger tracts of land to give a better yield and a variety of crops.

The prime minister also announced an allocation of RM637 million to implement three projects in Pahang.

These were a RM173 million water project to provide 106 million litres per day for the Gebeng industrial area; the RM446 million Phase 3 of the Semambu water treatment plant, with a capacity to provide 145 million litres per day (both in Kuantan); and a RM18 million project to prevent water supply disruption in Raub.