‘PH cuts mean tougher times ahead for rural farmers’
MIRI: The Pakatan Harapan (PH) federal government's slashing of allocations for the agriculture sector would result in tougher times ahead for rural farmers in Sarawak, said Telang Usan assemblyman Dennis Ngau.
He pointed out that the cut to fertiliser aid, for instance, would greatly affect hill padi planters.
Fertiliser subsidies for padi huma and padi bukit, which previously stood at RM70 million, were completely abolished.
He said rural farmers, such as those in his constituency, are dependent on farming for a living and are vulnerable to nature's fury, which can result in poor harvests.
“Our poor farmers will find it hard to make ends meet without government assistance like before, but farmers would have to get used to the PH government's way of running the government,” he said in response to the cuts under Budget 2019.
He said the previous Barisan Nasional (BN) government introduced the financial assistance especially for this group of people based on data from a thorough study following the requests of rural farming communities nationwide.
Dennis explained that rural subsistence farmers in Sarawak still need government assistance as income generated from farming, in areas such as Telang Usan, is still insufficient to sustain needs.
He stressed that the price of goods, both in urban and rural areas, continued to increase despite the PH government's promises of reducing the cost living with the elimination of the goods and services tax.
Dennis suggested such oversights in Budget 2019, particularly allocations for rural communities, would have been addressed if PH had included a deputy minister of agriculture from Sarawak.
He said the special assistance for farmers and fishermen provided by the previous government would have helped given free-falling commodity prices currently.
The assemblyman said thankfully the Sarawak government is willing to address the plight of rural Sarawakians.
On Tuesday, Pasir Gudang member of parliament Hassan Abdul Karim, from PH, had questioned the federal government's seriousness in helping farmers and fishermen following the significant cuts.
Under Budget 2019, the allocation for the Ministry of Agriculture and Agro-Based Industry was reduced by 13.7 per cent, from RM5.119 billion to RM4.417 billion.
The allocation for the padddy fertiliser subsidy was halved from RM465 million this year to RM230 million for next year, while the padddy production incentive was also reduced by half from RM563 million to RM281 million.