KUCHING: State government assistance to the agriculture sector should be relevant and specific for meaningful benefits and to reduce wastage.
Modernisation of Agriculture and Regional Development Minister Datuk Seri Dr Stephen Rundi Utom said that instead of assuming what assistance farmers and smallholders needed, there should be a new approach whereby these industry players provided data on the assistance required by them so that the assistance provided was relevant.
He urged the Department of Agriculture (DoA) to observe the actual needs of these groups, adding that not all agriculture industry players were involved in the same activity and thus they would require different forms of assistance.
“For example, those who are smallholders in the oil palm industry need to improve their farm roads and they also need fertiliser – these are the things that they have requested the government for assistance.
“Therefore, these are the things that we have to give to them, then the assistance becomes meaningful,” he said during his visit to the Semongok Agriculture Research Centre here yesterday.
Dr Rundi explained that if the assistance and subsidies provided were only assumed to be what these industry players needed, it would not truly benefit them and instead would be wasted.
“Anything we do has to be in accordance with the desires of those who need help. In addition, fishermen or those in the aquaculture industry need assistance that is quite specific as well,” he said.
He said such data on required assistance was not difficult to obtain as there had already been requests from those in need.
“Let them tell us what they want, then we assist. If not, our target would be incorrect and it would be a waste,” he said.
On another note, he urged Semongok Agriculture Research Centre employees to promote their extensive research findings to the public more widely and to head towards commercialising these findings.
“It is now up to (the centre) to promote the research findings to people who actually want to make use of them in a bigger or more commercial way,” he said.
Dr Rundi also said that the stretch from Semengok to Tarat would be a testbed to show Sarawakians that the state was able to modernise agriculture.
