KUCHING: The State Agriculture Department has brought many changes to the agriculture sector, moving the state closer to its aim of becoming a net agro-food exporter by 2030.
Assistant Agriculture Modernisation, Native Land and Regional Development Minister Datuk Roland Sagah Wee Inn said the department had started well in pushing the sector towards achieving the aim, and at the same time, helping to boost the state economy.
“In 2019, the agriculture sector contributed about 12.1 per cent or RM16.5 billion to the gross domestic product (GDP) of the state. However, in terms of agro-food trade, Sarawak experienced a deficit of RM3.98 bln last year.
“This figure shows that there is a lot of catching up to do in order to achieve our goal, but I’m confident that we will be able to reduce the food trade deficit and subsequently, turn that deficit into a surplus.
“Speaking of imports and exports, at the same time, we must not just merely give out assistance and input to our farmers without helping them to go further in terms of market access.
“This is where I want to highlight the importance of getting the myGAP certification, so that we can export our local products and build trust with our trade partners.
“This is how we can achieve our aspiration of becoming the net agro-food exporter by 2030,” Sagah said at the State Agriculture Department’s appreciation do at Imperial Hotel here on Monday (Dec 21).
He was representing Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas, who is also Agriculture Modernisation, Native Land and Regional Development Minister.
Sagah added that cluster farming was an interesting and systematic concept by the department.
The approach allowed for a more centralised coordination of the department’s functions with five different projects at 11 different locations statewide.
He said through cluster farming, the impact of the projects became more visible and, in a way, the participants were encouraged to share their knowledge with one another, support each other and work harder to make the projects a success.
“Once we have enough production volume, we are able to link the cluster farmers with our area farmers organisations (PPK) or our anchor buyers, thus helping both parties to achieve the respective objectives, which is market access for our cluster farmers, and raw materials or farm produce for our PPKs and anchor buyers.
“Hence, the state government has come up with various initiatives, including the setting up of more collection, processing and packaging centres (CPPC) and food terminals to support the whole commercialisation initiatives.”
In terms of food security, the production of modern variety paddy seedlings in Sri Aman Division is one of the ministry’s biggest milestones.
Currently, the state’s rice self-sufficiency level (SSL) stands at 53 per cent — still low compared to Thailand and Vietnam.
“The Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated the need to develop our own seedlings in order to support our food industry and to be less dependent on the importation of food products.”
Sagah added that if the state wanted to reduce the food import bill, “we will need to be able to produce at a larger capacity than what we have currently”.
“In order to achieve that, we need to ensure that we are able to produce quality seedlings, planting materials and fry for distribution to our farmers. Of course, the department alone is not able to make this a success.
“This is why we need to engage with genuine private companies as they have access to more resources for such production.”
Meanwhile, State Agriculture Department director Dr Alvin Chai Lian Kuet said with the positive performance of cluster farming, the department was expecting to implement more such projects going forward.
He also stressed that the MyGAP certification was a vital element “in ensuring that our products are able to penetrate export markets as it is internationally recognised Good Agriculture Practice (GAP)”.
“Currently, there are 210 farms under the food crops and 17 farms under the fisheries categories that have been certified under MyGAP in Sarawak.
“In the near future, this certification is expected to benefit many of the stingless bee farmers, including the 296 farmers assisted by the department.”
Chai also highlighted that the department was expecting to have a total yield of 100 metric tonnes of MR269 paddy variety at Tanjung Bijat, Stumbin and Pantu, making this the first large-scale paddy seedling production in Sarawak.
“The paddy seedlings will be distributed free to smallholders in various areas such as Tg Purun in Kuching Division and Skuduk-Chupak in Serian Division.
“This is an initiative by the department to promote and encourage the use of modern variety paddy seedlings among smallholders for improved productivity and to ensure food security in Sarawak, all of which would subsequently lead to a paddy self-sufficiency level of 70 per cent by 2030.”
Aside from that, the department also proposed that the production of modern variety paddy seedlings be privatised or undertaken by selected PPKs.
