TEBEDU: Department of Agriculture (DoA) Sarawak has been urged to intensify programmes which are aimed at helping farmers to market their produce.
Education, Science and Technological Research Minister Datuk Amar Michael Manyin Jawong said although the farmers had long been involved in agriculture, in terms of their produce, it was only “cukup cukup makan sahaja” (enough for self-consumption).
“Some rural people are not keen in venturing into agriculture because this is a difficult activity and the commodity prices are always unstable, depending on the world market.
“A lot of them are also not very keen to be involved in agriculture because it might be easy to plant crops but it’s hard for them to market the yields.
“Thus, I appeal to the Ministry of Modernisation of Agriculture, Native Land And Regional Development (Manred) through DoA to introduce a new programme next year to teach the people not just how to plant, but also how to increase production and marketing,” he said.
He said this after officiating at the closing of Agriculture Community Outreach programme (AgriCOP) for Tebedu at Dewan Kampung Kakeng here today.
Manyin, who is also the Tebedu assemblyman, further said he had always told his constituents that the government was doing its best to provide good infrastructure facilities, water supply, electricity and so on.
“Unfortunately, if you go from Serian to Tebedu, all you see is the jungle along the road.
“So in the next two to three years, we would like to see this jungle is cleared and planted with cash crops that can be commercialised,” he said.
