Agriculture
Yahya’s big food goals
921m ringgit to cut imports and grow crops for export
The race is on not just to produce enough food for everyone in Sabah. The agriculture department will have 921m ringgit ($283m) to spend on food production under the 10th five-year Malaysia plan which starts next year. But for now, Yahya Hussin, minister of agriculture and food industry, has set his sights on exporting fruit and vegetables. And he’s close to achieving his goal: Sabah is expected to produce enough fruit and vegetables from the “permanent food production park” (PFPP) in Tawau by year end.
“I hope to export fruit and vegetables from Tawau after we have produced more than enough for our needs,” he told his officers during an annual meeting at the Intan campus in Sepanggar, about 25km (16 miles) from Kota Kinabalu, on July 26.
The Tawau project, costing almost 12m ringgit, is the first to start on about 94 hectares of farm land. Four more are expected soon. The biggest one is in Sungai Lokan Kinabatangan which covers 723 hectares and Padawan Mandalipau in Papar which will have 517 hectares. Sungai Koyah Kinabatangan and Lamgkawit in Papar will each have 80 hectares of fruit and vegetable farms.
Yahya, who is also deputy chief minister, said he was happy that his department had helped produce 50 agricultural smallholders who should be earning a net monthly income of 2,000 ringgit. “I understand that more are being trained to become such entrepreneurs,” he said.
Sabah is aiming to produce enough rice and meat. It imports about 70% of its rice at a cost of one billion ringgit for 220,000 tonnes every year. It produces only 28% of meat for its consumption. But Sabah has been producing more milk than it can consume since the 1980s. Between 20% and 40% of the annual 10m litres of fresh milk are exported to the peninsula.
Yahya wants his officers to act fast and make quick decisions to improve efficiency. He expects them to be creative and innovative in carrying out nine programmes and 27 projects under the 10th Malaysia plan which include commercial growing of fruit and vegetables, pest and disease control to increase crop yields, agro-tourism, agricultural engineering and training of farmers. – Insight Sabah
(Reporting by Jenney Juanis. Picture by Oliver Majaham)
Posted on July 27, 2010
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