Boosting agriculture sector
State to set up corporation for building, managing its export of agriculture products
KUCHING: The state government will establish a body for building and managing the export of Sarawak agriculture products to overseas markets and to ensure that there are sufficient export orders on a sustainable basis, to be known as Sarawak Agriculture Products Export Corporation.
Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas, in announcing this, said the corporat ion would also be responsible for ensuring sufficient supply of the promoted agriculture products by working closely with smallholders and local plantation owners.
Apart from that, the corporation would also ensure competitiveness by promoting the use of the latest technology in agriculture, whenever necessary, and to encourage the use of technology through capital participation, he added.
“I am pleased to announce that the Sarawak government, through the export corporation, will inject capital for technology into agriculture for the purpose of modernising the sector.
“The export corporation will take up equity in promoted agriculture production projects which are properly planned and managed for the purpose of upgrading agriculture technology and will withdraw its equity from the projects once they have become commercial ly viable on their own,” he told a press conference after launching the seminar on sustainable, quality and safe agriculture production at Imperial Hotel here yesterday.
Uggah, who is also Minister of Modernisation of Agriculture and Rural Economy, said it is vital to have a properly organised agency to regulate and manage export products, given each country has its own regulation on the quality of food they want.
“For example, if we want to send the food to Singapore, they have their own requirement such as the level of pesticide in the products, which we also must meet. So unless we meet the requirement of the foreign market, we will never be able to market our product overseas,” he said.
Considering that Sarawak has huge land, Uggah said it has great potential to become the leading producer of food in the country.
He also said to ensure that there is transformat ion of agriculture in Sarawak, the state government would have to take a new approach in tandem with the digital economy as envisioned by Chief Minister Datuk Amar Abang Johari Tun Openg. He believed that with the increase in broadband speed and so on, Sarawak products would be very easily marketed globally.
“With high broadband speed, places in Kapit, Sarikei, Betong, Sri Aman and other parts of Sarawak will then be able reach out to the world with their products.
“At the same time, we also have world standard products, which are able to meet all those world standard markets. If we can work together to achieve this, I think the future of our agriculture will be a lot brighter,” he said.
As a start, Uggah said the corporation would initially focus on bananas, coconuts and durians for export to Peninsular Malaysia and Singapore as exports to China and Japan would take a longer time to materialise because of the administrative protocols involved.
He said the pilot project might start in the Sarikei and Betong divisions before the scheme is extended to other areas of Sarawak.
On a related matter, he said an international conference would be convened with experienced foreign speakers for the purpose of exploring opportunities in the production and export of tropical fruits by Sarawak and also to encourage the participation of young talented entrepreneurs in the agriculture sector.
Expected to be held in two or three months’ time, he said the international conference, would be open to all interested farmers from the rural areas and also the urban centres of Sarawak.
The export corporation will take up equity in promoted agriculture production projects which are properly planned and managed for the purpose of upgrading agriculture technology and will withdraw its equity from the projects once they have become commercially viable on their own. Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas, Deputy Chief Minister
KUCHING: The RM100-million venture capital to be introduced by the state government will be for the utilisation and upgrading of technology in agriculture.
In disclosing this, Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas said as Sarawak moves towards modernising its agriculture sector, it would have to go into high agro-technology.
“Therefore, if we find that there is agriculture technology that has the potential to be developed, we will use the money to invest in it.
“As our emphasis now is to commercialise and modernise our agriculture, we are moving away from our old traditional farming to high-tech, into precision, into smart farming and so on and so forth,” he told a press conference after launching the seminar on sustainable, quality and safe agriculture production here yesterday.
Uggah, who is also Minister of Modernisation of Agriculture and Rural Economy, said the fund would be managed by the state government- owned company, Sarawak Agriculture Products Export Corporation.
He said the corporation would take up equity in promoted agriculture production projects which are properly planned and managed for the purpose of utilising and upgrading technology.
He said once the projects are commercially viable and making money, the corporation would withdraw its equity and let the various stakeholders run the projects on their own.
“The stakeholders could be farmers, landowners and investors. This is an alternative of assisting them, especially smallholders, who may not have the capital to invest in agriculture technology,” he said.
“In other words, we are building them up more. This new direction is slightly different from our Salcra ( Sarawak Land Consolidation and Rehabilitation Authority) or Felda (Federal Land Development Authority) .”
Uggah said the RM100-million venture capital or seed fund was announced by Chief Minister Datuk Amar Abang Johari Tun Openg in Spaoh two weeks ago.