Kota Kinabalu: The Agriculture and Food Security Ministry’s (KPKM) move to increase the floor price for padi purchase in Sabah and Sarawak to RM1,300 per tonne effective Feb. 15 is expected to double the income of farmers in Sabah.
Its Deputy Minister Datuk Arthur Joseph Kurup said the Ministry’s Padi Industry Development Division projected that their income would increase yearly by 50 per cent from RM6,681 per hectare to RM10,735 per hectare.
“Based on the Farmers Organisation Authority’s data, it is estimated that 17,298 non-hill padi farmers will benefit from the increased income following the new floor price. I hope this will encourage more of local people to plant padi and subsequently increase Sabah’s production,” he said, after delivering his 2024 mandate to KPKM’s Sabah agencies.
It was participated by the State Agriculture, Fisheries and Food Industry Ministry (MAFFI) and its agencies at the KWSP Building, here, Thursday.
SPONSORED CONTENT Mengalum for world’s first net zero carbon island resort Taiwan’s Sinyi Group is on track to unveil the world’s first unique net zero carbon island resort on Mengalum Island. . Read more The Federal Government agreed to standardise the floor price for padi purchase in Sabah and Sarawak from RM900 to RM1,300, to be in line with the peninsula’s.
However, the new floor price is only applicable to white rice and does not include special or traditional rice produced in Sabah and Sarawak.
Arthur said the move would ensure that the padi industry in the Borneon States remains sustainable and competitive in line with the Ministry’s aspiration to increase Malaysia’s rice production and reduce reliance on imports.
He said the average rice yield in Sabah is still unfavourably low, around 2,882 metric tonnes per hectare, which causes the State to rely on imports.
“The is exacerbated by issues including insufficient seed supply, delayed fertiliser supply distribution, loose soil, incomplete agricultural infrastructure such as irrigation and drainage systems and low participation of youths (in the industry),” he said.
As such, Arthur said the Ministry would revolutionise existing mechanisms and formulate a new direction for the country’s padi industry, dubbing it as “Gelombang Padi” (paddy wave).
He said 12 programmes would be implemented, including introducing new policies for the Certified Padi Seed Incentive (IBPS) and expanding the Mini Sekinchan Large-Scale Smart Padi Project (Smart SBB), among others.
Earlier, Arthur highlighted KPKM’s four main focuses for 2024, namely the Padi, chicken and egg, pineapple and onion industries, in efforts to optimise the country’s food security.
He said Malaysian Agricultural Research and Development Institute’s (Mardi) project to cultivate red onions would be expanded to Sabah once large-scale cultivation becomes feasible.
“This is implemented in two phases, namely the pilot and expansion phase. The upskilling project for onion cultivation was carried out on Jan. 24 in a one-hectare area in Kg Ladang Bikam, Sungkai, Perak.
“When there is enough supply of the seeds, we will expand to the whole country including Sabah. We will determine suitable land in Sabah to plant these onions, so that the State can also contribute to this food security effort,” he said.
For the record, Malaysia fully relied on onion imports from countries such as India, Netherlands and Thailand, recording a total onion import of 685.4 thousand metric tonnes valued at RM1.58 billion in 2022.
Arthur hoped that the cooperation between KPKM and Sabah MAFFI would be strengthened to develop idle lands in Sabah with agro-food farming activities.
Meanwhile, Arthur said 367 AgroMadani sales programmes have been implemented throughout 2023 across Sabah, involving 3,990 entrepreneurs and with sales of RM5.25 million.
Congratulating to Federal Agricultural Marketing Authority (Fama) Sabah, he said the number of AgroMadani Sales in Sabah me be increased as well as held regularly from this year.
The AgroMadani programmes aims to counter the crisis of increasing global food prices, offering sales on various agro-food items directly from the farm with price offers between 10pc to 30pc lower compared to local market price.
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