PONTIAN: Farmers in the country have been urged to adopt integrated farming to diversify their crops and not to focus only on commodity cultivation.
Deputy Agriculture and Agro-based Industry Minister Sim Tze Tzin said this was important to ensure the income of farmers were not affected with other sources of revenue if the price of commodities such as oil palm fell.
More so, he said, his ministry has allocated RM150 million next year to be distributed to farmers who wanted to carry out integrated farming.
“The allocation was announced in Budget 2020 and it should benefit our farmers so as not to be tied to the price of commodities.
“In other words, we should diversify our crops,” he said in a media conference after visiting Ladang Aqina Fruits Plantation Sdn Bhd di Kampung Sam, Pontian, here yesterday.
Sim said among the integrated crops which could be considered are pineapple, coconut and vegetables.
He said integrated farms also help to reduce the risk of diseases or pest attacks.
“…but the industrial mind unfortunately is to plant the same crop like others.
“As a result, we do not have diversity. For example, we have eight million hectares of agriculture land but six million are planted with palm oil.
“So when the price of a commodity fell, it would give an impact,” he said.
He said to ensure farmers chose integrated farms, the ministry according to him are discussing with the Primary Industry Ministry on assistance apart from grants.
This included technical advice and consultancy.
In this regard, Sim said the farmers can benefit from planting pineapple as there is a strong demand from China for the fruit.
He said the country needed to supply 100 containers or 1,800 tonnes a month but Malaysia could only meet 20 containers.
“This is only for the market in China, we have not even considered the European market. So I think more farmers should go into planting the fruit,” he said. – Bernama
