KALABAKAN: The Agriculture and Food Security Ministry (MAFS) is encouraging the Sabah and Sarawak governments to cooperate in developing agricultural land to help the country maintain food security.
Deputy Minister Chan Foong Hin said land development in the agricultural sector in both states was under the jurisdiction of the respective state governments.
“Encouragement and aid support whether in the form of money, infrastructure development or training for interested communities to venture into agri-food sector is always available.
“It’s up to the state government whether to give land for federal projects or go into other forms of cooperation,” he told reporters after a meeting and delivering his mandate in conjunction with his official working visit to Tawau today.
Chan said Sabah and Sarawak also had the authority to allow export and import of food resources on their own, pointing out that the country’s food supply was now at a sufficient level.
He said MAFS extended help to farmers affected by disasters like floods, with aid in various forms amounting to 50 per cent of the losses suffered.
Meanwhile, Sabah Assistant Minister of Industrial and Entrepreneur Development Datuk Andi Muhammad Suryady Bandy hoped that the Tawau parliamentary constituency would also have its own Permanent Food Production Park (TKPM) project for ruminant farming involving cattle, sheep and deer.
He said there is a 300-acre grazing land in Pulau Sebatik, Tawau, which is under the Sabah Veterinary Services Department.
“Any proposal for utilising this land can be extended to the state government, and there are also many plots of government-owned land which can be developed,” he said. – BERNAMA
