RM2.6m boost for Tenom farmers
Published on: Wednesday, September 18, 2019
By: Mail Mathew
Salahuddin (holding spade) planting coffee seedling while Yap (left) looks on.
Tenom: Agriculture and Agro-based Industry Minister Dato’ Salahuddin Ayub congratulated the Tenom community on the opening of the new Area Farmers Association (PPK) office that cost about RM2.6 million.The building was built starting Aug 1, 2016 on a 0.463 acre lot and was fully completed by Mar 31, last year.ADVERTISEMENT
Salahuddin said the completed building is a landmark for successful entrepreneurs in the field of agricultural pathways.
He said that his Ministry would have no problem providing subsidised fertiliser for hill rice fields to farmers and paddy farmers this season.
This is because the allocation for the purpose has been provided at RM44 million and so far there have been no problems or hindrance for the Agriculture Officers to distribute it as quickly as possible, he said.
Similarly, he said, the application for new seedlings for a variety of crops managed by the Ministry under the new wealth scheme has also been provided for the purpose.ADVERTISEMENT
In addition, they will also help gardeners or farmers who want to grow a variety of crops in their gardens and ensure more cash crops are grown in the country, he said.
Hence, Farmers’ Organisation Board (LPP) through the PPK be a more proactive agency in their monitoring and to encourage the diversification of crops, he said.
ADVERTISEMENT
“So, if a farmer wants to be successful in their endeavour, they must diversify their efforts and cultivation to be a successful entrepreneur like iconic agropreneur Datuk Yap Yun Fook,” he said.
He said, Yap is not only well known as a successful agriculture entrepreneur in Sabah but also in livestock because he practices diversification.
He said his Ministry would assist the people to grow cash crops while the PPK a monitoring agency where large amounts of cash crops would be grown in large scale so as to generate higher economic returns to the people, paticularly farmers.
On the agro-processing centre as mentioned by Tenom MP, Noorita Sual, he said it would be built in Tenom and that the Ministry’s staff would be coming here soon to see if it is suitable to be built in Tenom.
On the issue of food imports, Salahuddin said the government wanted to increase domestic production to meet domestic demand and that if there is an excess the government would consider exporting it
“This is because we cannot rely on food imports forever,” he said to reporters after the opening of the new Tenom PPK Office.
Meanwhile, he said that he met with Minister of Finance Lim Guan Eng recently to ensure that in next year’s Budget there would have high allocation of funds to guide and develop farmers in the field of entrepreneurship.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
Daily Express Malaysia
He said this was because food supply in the country was still inadequate and it still rely on food imports such as turmeric, lemongrass, ginger and sweet potato, among others.
He said that Felda today has six million hectares of undeveloped land, excluding vacant land.