Sabah aspires to be granary hub of Asean
KOTA KINABALU: The Agriculture and Food Industry is looking at a great leap in agriculture development that focuses on food-based crop production as a step towards making Sabah the granary hub of Asean.
Its minister, Junz Wong has a vision to set up an education city to facilitate knowledge and technology transfer to the agriculture sector.
He said advanced technology and knowledge transfer would be the key toward success in agriculture and food industry development for Sabah.
“As food crisis has been a global issue, the state government intends to focus on increasing the production of food-based crops, specifically paddy farming, in which the self-sufficiency level for paddy in Sabah had declined to 20% throughout the years,” he said.
Junz offered his open arms approach to entrepreneurs and investors with advanced technology from overseas who are able to contribute towards developing the farming sector in Sabah, especially in intensification of rice production, modernised cropping, advanced irrigation system and high-tech mapping system, which will lead to increased yield and quality crops.
The minister expressed his enthusiasm following a presentation on agro education and agriculture development agenda during his visit to the Chengdu Agriculture College in China recently.
“The collaboration with an educational institute will trigger a synergy in research and development and technology transfer, which would be practical and suitable for local agro farming and aquaculture,” he said.
According to Junz, the collaboration will not only benefit the state agriculture industry but will also provide an opportunity for expansion to overseas investors, making it a win-win outcome for all participants of the venture.
The ample resources and logistically strategic location will be the dominant factor for Sabah to the granary exporting hub in the region. The setting up of an international integrated education and commercial headquarters is essential to provide favourable conditions to establish the international agriculture research incubator partnership program for China and Asean countries.
Junz also expressed his confidence that long-term benefits for 10+1 China-Asean region will be achieved.