Commercial farming the way forward for Sarawak to be food exporter, says Dr Rundi

MIRI (July 16): Sarawak is targeting to be a food exporter by 2030 in line with the state government’s Post Covid-19 Development Strategy (PCDS) and its plan towards achieving food security, said Dato Sri Dr Stephen Rundi Utom.

However, the Food Industry, Commodity and Regional Development Minister noted that the farming and agricultural community in the state are mostly smallholders in the oil palm sector which involves heavy work and is labour-intensive.

“We need to create a downstream industry (movement of finished goods from farm to table), be it coconut, pineapple or banana.

“If we, the government, can come in to develop the industry and plus the big players becoming the anchor and the smallholdings transformed into commercial farming, then we will see the future of our agriculture sector, especially in Sarawak.

“I’ve noticed a perception against farmers in Sarawak, and even in Malaysia that they are those in the category of low-income group or even B40. So, if we can transform our approach and ways of looking at farming, we can naturally eliminate poverty,” he told a press conference yesterday at the opening ceremony of the 16th National Seminar 2024.

Dr Rundi represented Premier Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Abang Johari Tun Openg to officiate the event that was organised by the Incorporated Society of Planters (ISP).

The three-day event until July 17 has attracted more than 850 participants from all over Malaysia as well as from foreign countries.

Speaking of food security, Dr Rundi said paddy planting is a way forward towards self-sufficiency and the state government is ready to develop it.

“We (Sarawak government) are ready with RM500 million and we are asking another RM500 million from the federal government, as we’ll need RM1 billion to develop the paddy planting field that is expected to cover southern part of Sarawak all the way to Limbang and Lawas. The federal government has yet to respond to this, unfortunately.

“To sustain paddy planting means we need at least 5,000 hectares of land which we have and with the high yield variety named U-Putra, on studies done by Universiti Putra Malaysia showed that it can be planted and harvested for five seasons in two years. This would help us to actually improve our self-sufficiency level (SSL).

“Right now, our SSL is 32 per cent, meaning we need to import 68 per cent of rice for local consumption,” he said.

He stressed that as the wait gets longer over the years, land meant for paddy planting have been converted to other uses such as cultivation of crops, over which the government must intervene to make sure that they are planted with paddy.

To create a sustainable supply of rice through paddy planting, Dr Rundi mentioned that proper infrastructure is needed, from primary to tertiary, but is not cheap to maintain.

He appealed to ISP and industry players to come together to brainstorm on applying the technology and techniques they use to develop and sustain oil palm plantations into paddy planting to produce high yield.

“We need experts and experienced planters who have been in this 100-year-old industry to share their bitter, sweet experiences so that we don’t have to go through the same thing and challenges over again, to teach us the best way forward to improve our yield and improve revenue,” he said.

Also present were Ministry of Plantation and Commodities secretary-general Datuk Yusran Shah Mohd Yusof who represented minister Datuk Seri Johari Abdul Ghani; ISP chairman Datuk Daud Amatzin; ISP Management (M) Sdn Bhd chairman Mohamad Fadzil Hitam; and ISP Management chief executive officer Rajindran Irusan.