BAU: The Sarawak government’s efforts to change the agricultural development landscape can be realised through the involvement of rural communities in the modern agricultural sector.
Serembu assemblyman Miro Simuh said the rural community needed to be involved in modern agriculture activities to reduce the state’s dependence on outside products.
He said the communities in Sarawak, especially the rural population, must also be involved in cultivating crops to achieve the government’s policy in increasing national food production.
“We cannot rely entirely on imported food from other countries such as China, which currently supplies carrots, cabbages and broccoli in this country.
“Therefore, I call on our community to be involved in modern agriculture so that the level of food dependency on imported products can be reduced,” he said when speaking at the closing ceremony of the Agriculture Community Outreach Programme (AgriCOP) 2020 at Dewan Kampung Kandis Lama here on Monday (Dec 14).
He added that the programme organised by the Modernisation of Agriculture, Native Land and Regional Development Sarawak Ministry (Manred) focused on raising awareness of the people on the importance of modern agriculture as a new concept.
Miro explained that agriculture had long been applied and emphasised but in a limited manner without the application of modern agricultural concepts.
“With AgriCOP, we bring more experts in their respective fields to open the minds of the people so that they can accept the concept of modern agriculture.
“After a year or two, the people will realise the importance of modern agriculture and accept that this is the new norm in the agricultural sector.”
In this regard, he also advised villagers to cultivate their idle land as it is a suitable place to initiate farming activities through cultivation of crops.
“This is because in rural areas, there are many idle lands that are not utilised.”
