Focus on domestic food production – Junz
TAWAU: Farmers, breeders and fishermen needed to master the use of modern technology in developing the agricultural sector, Agriculture and Food Industry Minister Junz Wong.
The transfer and use of agricultural technology will accelerate the process of agricultural transformation. Effective transformation will reduce production costs, save energy and time, increase productivity of higher quality farm produce and enhance farm management efficiency.
Agriculture should now be developed on large scale to enable farmers to get maximum returns, he said in his speech which was read by Assistant Minister Dr Daud Yusof during the closing of the convention yesterday.
Junz said existing agricultural patterns and practices needed to be changed from traditional to modern agricultural practices oriented to market driven and customer needs.
Communities, breeders and fishermen, he said should be willing to accept and make drastic changes, he said.
“They need to be brand new, change attitudes, embrace the culture and character of entrepreneurial practice within themselves, mastering ICT and modern agricultural technology,” he said.
The government’s aspiration to make the agriculture sector as the main sector in generating the country’s economic income should be supported by farmers, breeders and fishermen nationwide, he said.
The agriculture sector is now not only required to contribute to the country’s food production needs, but to make Malaysia a leading food exporting country in the future aimed at improving the country’s food security, he added.
Junz said the main thrust of the state government’s agricultural development is to increase the level of domestic food production.
“This effort is in line with the government’s efforts to create a positive trade balance especially in food production. The goal of increasing domestic food production is to reduce the country’s soaring food import bill that is estimated at RM1.3 billion a year.”
Junz said the ministry is focusing some products that are cultivated in the state. For example, paddy production can be improved which is currently only capable of meeting 20-25 percent of domestic demand.
Paddy production can be increased based on the existing 40,314 hectares of paddy fields and the adoption of a new proven rice cultivation technology where rice can be produced in excess of 10 MT per hectare, he said.
Wong said the agricultural sector should be a catalyst for raising the level of subsistence economy of farmers, breeders and fishermen, strengthening the national food security, reducing the country’s import bills, creating job opportunities, reducing unemployment and eventually becoming a major sector in generating economic income in the country, especially in Sabah.
Also present at the event were Agriculture and Food Industry Ministry’s permanent secretary Dr Mariana Tinggal and Farmers’ Organization Board Sabah director Anita Misuari .