TAMBUNAN: Paddy cultivation area in Sabah has dwindled by at least 500 hectares last year compared to the previous year, according to preliminary data from the Agriculture Department.
Deputy Chief Minister I cum Agriculture, Fisheries and Food Industry Minister, Datuk Seri Dr Jeffrey Kitingan, who revealed this, however, believes that the drop in rice planting activities in Sabah can be improved.
He said one of the strategic steps is by planting twice a year to increase the yield of paddy cultivation areas in the State since opening new paddy fields is difficult.
“I hope that the size of the area planted with rice in Sabah can be increased like in Tambunan which showed an increase of 11 per cent in 2023 compared to 2022,” he said at the launch of the off-season paddy planting using High Yielding Verity (HYV) seeds at the multipurpose hall of Kampung Nambayan, Monday.