Kota Kinabalu: The Ministry of Fisheries and Food Industry (Maffi) is running on a RM25.47 million deficit in 2025.
Its Minister Datuk Seri Dr Jeffrey Kitingan said the “Prosperous Sabah, Prosperous People” budget is a 2.8pc (RM4.15m) increase compared to the previous year.
Advertisement (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});“But the actual allocation required by Maffi to develop the agricultural sector for 2025 is RM173.6 million. Only RM148.13 million was approved in the 2025 budget.
“Therefore, it is very difficult for us to achieve the objectives that have been outlined this year.
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Dr Jeffrey said, up to November 2024, Maffi has received applications worth RM40.3 million to upgrade or maintain agricultural roads from various districts throughout Sabah, but was only given an allocation of RM4.2 million for the purpose.
Advertisement (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});“Similarly, the Sabah Paddy and Rice Board (LPBS) application which amounted to RM27.5 million, but only RM2.5 million was approved.
“I have appealed to the Cabinet to reconsider RM30 million from the interim allocation of RM600 million for the development of the paddy industry in Sabah.
Advertisement (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});“With this allocation, I am confident that we will be able to increase the self-sufficiency rate of paddy to 30 pc in 2027 and then 60 pc by 2030,” he said, after the ministry’s 2025 Chinese New Year celebrations at its headquarters, Friday.
Of the RM86 billion overall federal development allocation, he said, RM73.4 billion was allocated for peninsula and only RM6.7 billion for Sabah and RM5.9 billion for Sarawak.
“In addition, flood mitigation projects can also be used as an example of the need for allocations for state development that are very large, but the approved allocations are small. Under the 12th RMK, for flood mitigation works, the Sabah Irrigation and Drainage Department applied for RM733.5 million and only RM131.5 million was approved.
“DVS has also submitted an allocation application for the Sabah Dairy Transformation Project amounting to RM60 million, but it was not approved, meaning it did not receive any allocation.
“Similar projects have existed since the 6th RMK, but were not continued under the 12th RMK. Therefore, there will be no additional imported dairy breeding stock and sires in Sabah throughout the 12th RMK (2021-2025) period,” The Sabah Deputy Chief Minister said.
He said Sabah relies on ruminat imports for up to 92.5pc which prevents the people aspirations and set objectives.
Looking forward, he said this year, Maffi would establish an Agro Tourism Unit whose role is to identify and highlight agricultural products that have the potential to be used as tourism products.
“Apart from upstream and downstream agricultural products, areas suitable for tourism centres will be highlighted as tourist hotspots, including the Sabah Agricultural Park, the Sabah Agricultural Institute in Mengaris, the Ko-Nelayan Aquaculture Training Centre in Laya-Laya Tuaran and areas involved in the tagal system,” he said.
