MAFS’ agrotourism, agroyouth tour attracts 17,000 visitors

The first series of the ‘Agrotourism and Agroyouth Tour’ organised by the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security (MAFS) at Pasir Gudang City Stadium, Johor Bahru from Dec 2 to 4 last year attracted 17,000 visitors with sales value amounting to RM336,000.

The ministry, in a statement yesterday, said the tour was one of the government’s interventions in empowering agriculture and diversifying agriculture-based sources of income through the participation of young people.

It said the tour involved government departments and agencies to share information regarding the initiatives and assistance offered by MAFS, particularly for farmers, breeders and fishermen, as well as entrepreneurs in the agrofood sector.

The tour also aimed to highlight the agritourism sector through the offering of tourism packages based on the agricultural sector, business matching and sales activities involving agro-food industry players, it said.

According to the ministry, throughout the three-day programme, MAFS also organised the ‘My Best Buy’ (MBB) sales to help reduce the cost of living of the people by offering the sale of agricultural and non-agricultural products at reasonable prices.

Regarding the Young Agropreneur Programme (PAM), the ministry said it was introduced to encourage the involvement of young people, especially those between the ages of 18 and 40, to venture into agriculture-based entrepreneurship, including crop production, livestock and fisheries.

A total of 8,403 young agropreneurs nationwide have received grants amounting to RM 151.75 million under the programme from Jan 1, 2016 to Dec 31, 2022, said the ministry.

According to the ministry, a total of 165 young agropreneurs nationwide received financing approval amounting to RM23.13 million over the same period.

Last year alone, a total of 704 young agropreneurs nationwide received approval for grants amounting to RM 14.04 million, it said.

Regarding the Agritourism initiative, MAFS said 40 agritourism centres had benefitted from it.

The revenue collected by these centres from 2019 until 2021 amounted to RM 81.4 million with a total of 4.4 million visitors, it said.