SEGAMAT: A fruit seller’s initiative to buy from fruit growers in Kampung Serakek and Kampung Simpang Jabi here has helped in easing their burdens as they were unable to deliver their crops to traders due to floods.

       Mahathir Mahmud (pic), 43, said he hoped his small effort would help the villagers whose income mostly depended on selling fruits grown in their orchards.

       He said the growers could not deliver the fruits to traders because the main road connecting the two villages was flooded.

       "Realising their difficulties, I took it upon myself to go to the villages by boat and buy their crops even in small quantities because I do not want them to lose their source of income during difficult times like these," he said when met by Bernama at his stall in Buloh Kasap here Thursday (Jan 6).

       He said he would normally buy bananas at RM2 per kilogramme and durians between RM20 and RM30 per kilogramme from the growers.

       Meanwhile, a rubber farmer Mohd Zahari Abdul Samad, 47, said he could not go out to work for almost a week now as the road leading to his rubber plantation was flooded, which had also damaged some of the trees.

       He said to support his family, he now repairs electrical appliances for residents in Taman Yayasan here.

       Segamat recorded the highest number of flood victims in Johor with 2,460 people from 676 families were housed at 36 flood relief centres as of 4pm on Thursday. - Bernama