Malaysia's Federal Land Development Authority (FELDA) has matured over 30 years into one of the Third World's most successful land settlement agencies. However, its role as a current model of land settlement has ceased following a major policy change in 1991 which quite suddenly has stopped the recruitment of further settlers. Henceforth FELDA will function as an agribusiness land development agency, more on the lines of a plantation company aiming for commercial efficiency than a state organisation with social development objectives. About 100,000 settler families remain within the FELDA structure but all new schemes employ labourers rather than resettle the rural poor. The settlement 'balance sheet' of the past 30 years of settlement activity is evaluated along with the emerging problems of success and maturity, which include especially the changeover to a second generation of settlers and the conversion to a replacement crop as both initial settlers and rubber trees age and have to be retired. The first results of FELDA's new plantation sector are examined together with some alternative scenarios for FELDA's future.