Govt focused on raising rural farmers’ income — Uggah

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KUCHING: The government is committed to raising the income level of rural farmers in the state to reduce the income disparity between rural and urban households.

Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah

Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah, who is also Minister of Modernisation of Agriculture, Native Land and Regional Development, said famers in the state have also been encouraged to operate more than one agricultural activity in order to sustain household income in the face of price fluctuation.

“Under the agro-based industry, 194 programme participants are now earning an average monthly income of RM11,800. An additional allocation of RM3 million has been allocated this year to assist new participants,” he said when winding up his ministerial speech at the State Legislative Assembly (DUN) yesterday.

He added the government has also approved an additional RM9.5 million to establish two Processing Incubator Centres in Kuching and Miri, which will be certified with Good Manufacturing Practices, Hazard Analysis Control, and halal quality assurance to ensure the finished products of the entrepreneurs meet international standards, thus boosting market demand for local products.

Uggah also told the august house that aquaculture is one of the government’s high-impact projects that can raise rural income.

“Cage culture in Batang Ai Lake has proven to be successful in increasing fish production to meet domestic demand. The Batang Ai tilapia cage culture project, which started in 1992 with 613 cages, has increased to 9,434 cases over the years, with present production now estimated at 700 tonnes,” he said, disclosing that some of the project participants are now earning more than RM4,000 per month.

As for those involved in the livestock sector, Uggah said the government in 2017 allocated RM1.9 million for the Livestock Commercial Unit (LCU) programme which benefitted 150 participants, and half a million ringgit under the Buffalo Entrepreneur Programme (BEP) for the provision of farm infrastructure benefitting 10 participants.

For this year, an allocation of RM1.8 million has been approved under BEP, he added.

Touching on oil palm smallholders, Uggah said to-date, a total of 212,142 hectares have been planted with oil palm, comprising 36,787 smallholders with an average holding size of 7.2 hectares.

He said based on this average size, a smallholder will be able to generate an income of RM5,760 per month.

“In view of the tremendous growth achieved in the development of the smallholder subsector, smallholders are encouraged to organise themselves through cooperatives. This is to ensure that smallholders will be able to transport, market and enjoy competitive prices for their FFBs (fresh fruit bunches).”

Uggah said his ministry is also proposing to consolidate small parcels of idle agricultural land which have great potential to be developed into modern farming areas.

He said the government, through its land development agencies, is proposing to rent suitable idle agricultural land from land owners who are no longer interested to develop their land.

“The consolidated parcels of land will be rented out to a single or a group of agriculture entrepreneurs as one sizable block of modern agricultural land,” he added.