Plan to turn Sabah into food basket hub
KOTA KINABALU: Brunei-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines East ASEAN Growth Area (BIMPEAGA) Business Council Malaysia discussed the future of Sabah’s agriculture and fisheries industry with Minister of Agriculture, Food and Industry Datuk Junz Wong when they paid a visit to the latter on Monday.
National chairman of BIMPEAGA Business Council (BEBC) Datuk Roselan J Mohamed was accompanied by the newly appointed BEBC Sabah team which includes executive secretary and chairman for Keningau District Junzuenn Basalan, head of SME and chairman for KK District NK Foo, chairman for Kudat District James Ibrahim, chairman for Penampang District Michael Chin, chairman for Tawau Wong Thart Sin and head of Agro-industry Cluster for Tawau District Datuk Goffery Yee Loong Fook.
A total of 16 agendas were tabled during the meeting, which include the commercial implementation of pawlounia, cavendish banana, hybrid napier and hybrid paddy.
Roselan has suggested the Agri Ministry to initiate a ‘One District One Plant’ program. For example he proposed the plantation of chrysanthemum in Kundasang. Cameron Highlands over the pass few years has been controlling the world export of chrysanthemum to Japan at a whopping 59%.
“We are very fortunate that we have direct flight connections to Japan, twice a week, which puts us as a qualifier to plant this National flower of Japan. We are hoping that the Chief Minister can allocate BEBC with 20 acres of land to spearhead this program. This planting is not about competition, but merely to establish Malaysia to secure a higher percentages in our exports to Japan and elsewhere,” said Roselan.
Roselan also added that somewhere in Lombok, Indonesia, a relatively unknown farmer is exporting purple sweet potatoes to Japan every week amounting to 2 x 20 footer reefer containers. He is still living his simple ordinary life despite having a fat savings account accumulated over the years out of his hard toilings in the field. BEBC hopes our local Sabahan farmers can take up the challenge. When asked about the location to implement this purple sweet potatoes, he responded that the village has yet to be identified.
“We probably will have to work with KPD to realize this venture,” he said.
Meanwhile, Goffery suggested cultivating the Tadulan coconut species to avoid mono crop system for Tawau, the cultivation of pineapple as commercial fruits, as well as the commercial rearing of green crabs in Tawau.
“Since the Tadulan coconuts and the MD2 pineapples are already within the purview of the Agri Minister, members of the BEBC Tawau will try to pursue the rearing of green crabs after a suitable location has been identified,” said Roselan.
“BEBC members have always made our voices heard in the AgriCluster meetings of BIMP-EAGA and will still use our lessons learnt to lend support to our energetic Agri Minister to eventually create a sustainable, competitive and climate-resilient agro industry and fisheries in Sabah. Our end result shall be food security program, export development and promoting sustainable livelihood for our farmers and fisher folks of Sabah,” added Roselan.
The minister had clearly indicated that the Sabah Government is here as a facilitator to the private sector initiatives and will never be in the actual business.
“Let the private sector do their business. We will come in when there are matters to regulate and control if ever there is the need,” said Junz.