SERIAN: The Sarawak government is ready to assist fruit farmers who have shown interest and commitment to grow big.
Deputy Chief Minister and Minister of Agriculture, Native Land and Regional Development Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas assured the farmers the government had several programmes to help them.
These include grants, venture capital loan besides technical and professional advice. In addition, it would set up collecting, processing and packaging centres (CPPC) to help them with marketing.
He gave these assurances when visiting the Semukoi Agro Farm Sdn Bhd at Serian/Sri Aman Road yesterday. The farm now growing mainly Japanese rock melon belongs to a Dayak agropreneur Terence S. Landong who runs it with his family members.
Uggah was glad to note that a number of native entrepreneurs had now participated in the industry.
“They are doing their parts to help fulfill the state’s aspiration of becoming a net exporter of food and food products by 2030. They can be part of our vital supply chain.
“I hope they will follow the footsteps of other successful entrepreneurs by getting the MyGAP accreditation and allow their products to penetrate the outside markets,” he said.
He also said there would soon be a growing need for entrepreneurs who could develop and supply fruit seeds.
“This is going to be a big business when more people go into the industry,” he stressed.
He congratulated Terence for venturing into the modern agriculture system of fertigation and hydroponics.
The Semukoi farm started in April 2018 with site levelling and followed by farm infrastructure installation in June.
According to Terence, rock melon is the main commercial produce on the five-hectare farm which he planned to expand phase by phase.
“We are also cultivating strawberry, chilly, ginger and a number of indigenous fruits. Our aim is to have an agro park to attract agro tourists besides becoming a contract farm,” he said.
On the farm’s progress, he said on March 7 this year it planted its first batch of 5,000 rock melon and in May they managed to harvest 6,000 kilogrammes and another 8,000 kilogrammes in August.
He said in September the farm planted another 5,300 plants and the harvest was done in the first week of this month.
“Our future plan is to have 50,000 plants with the current farm upgrading and extension works,” he added.
He said there were various challenges involved like the wet weather, increase in the cost of fertiliser, nutrient, seeds and others and the frequent breakdown of power and water supplies.
“We are planning to obtain the MyGAP certification,” said Terence.
