No pasar tani, tamu allowed in red zones

KUCHING: The State Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) has decided not to allow ‘pasar tani’ (farmers markets) and ‘pasar tamu’ (jungle produce markets) to operate in Covid19’s Red Zones in Sarawak, said Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas.

“The first step that we take is to ensure the agriculture products that can be sold will be sold. Therefore, we have instructed the local Department of Agriculture and Farmers Organisation to purchase the products.

“For farmers who have problems selling their produce, they are to contact the Agriculture offices in their respective divisions or districts,” he said in the daily Covid-19 update yesterday.

Uggah, who is also SDMC chairman, said the move was meant to ensure that whatever produce brought in by the farmers would be bought, while the Department of Agriculture and Farmers Organisation would find ways to sell the products.

“This is to prevent the farmers from coming into the town areas to sell their products, which might put them into risk of getting Covid-19 infection.

“The second (step) taht we take is to ask the Ministry for Local Government and Housing or the district councils to evaluate the situation at certain places under their jurisdictions, especially in the Red Zones, whether those ‘pasar tani’ could be opened or not.

“We leave that to the local councils to decide.”

Uggah stressed that all these decisions were made not to cause problems, although he acknowledged that certain issues would arise.

“To minimise the problems, we try to seek solutions. That’s what we have been doing since the (imposition of the) Movement Control Order (MCO).

“The Agriculture Department and the LKIM (Fisheries Development Authority of Malaysia) have also bought products from farmers and fishermen, respectively, who could not sell their products because they could not go to town.

“I hope this (mechanism) would be communicated to the people on the ground so that they would know despite being unable to sell their products in town, they could still get their incomes from their products,” he added.