Govt seeks to cut reliance on imported veggie seeds by 90pc

SEPANG: The Agriculture and Agro-based Industry Ministry is committed to developing a technology that will reduce the agriculture sector’s dependence on imported vegetable seeds.

Its minister, Salahuddin Ayub, said a discussion on the matter would be held with the Malaysian Agriculture Research and Development Institute (Mardi).

“If possible, we want to reduce our dependence on imported vegetable seeds by 90 per cent to boost the capability of the agriculture industry.”

He said by empowering the local industry, it would enable farmers to obtain cheaper and quality vegetable seeds, hence reducing factors that contributed to the increase in food prices.

“The country’s ability to produce only 10 per cent of the seeds is among the factors that hamper the growth of local vegetable farming, “he said after a dialogue with participants of the Bukit Damar agro-entrepreneur project in Dengkil yesterday.

He expressed confidence that with Mardi’s expertise and the support of relevant departments, Malaysia would be able to produce quality vegetable seeds.

Present was Agriculture director-general Datuk Jamal Harizan Yang Razali.

Salahuddin expressed the need for the Agriculture Department to provide more courses for farmers on the use of modern technology in farming.

He said the proposal by the Advisory Council set up by the government for subsidy given to padi farmers to be expanded to other crop was not intended to reduce the amount of the subsidy.

Instead, it was to use the subsidy for other crops to increase the household income of the farmers concerned, he added.