Reducing rural poverty among Dept of Agriculture Sarawak’s greatest achievements over past 100 years, says Uggah

Uggah (second left) presenting the Ikon Petani Jaya award to banana farmer Jingkoon Jambu (right) at Maludam Spaoh Agrofest while Minister of Food industry, Commodity and Regional Development Dato Sri Dr Stephen Rundi Utom (left) and his deputy Datuk Martin Ben (second right) look on.

By DayakDaily Team

KUCHING, July 14: Liberating rural people from the shackles of poverty is one of Department of Agriculture Sarawak’s greatest achievements in its 100 years of history, says Deputy Premier Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas.

According to Uggah, rural folks now are far better off and have a higher standard of living.

“They can afford to own cars and other vehicles, have concrete longhouses and even can buy homes in towns and cities.

“This to me is an indicator of the positive changes brought about,” he told reporters after officiating at the closing ceremony of Spaoh Agrofest held in Spaoh today, according to a press release.

He said that the people in the old days did not have enough to eat and malnutrition was a common issue although they had farms for food production.

He also said that such issues have now disappeared and the department is currently focusing on increasing the people’s income.

“All these positive changes had been made possible beginning with the cultivation of commercial crops like cocoa, rubber, pepper and oil palm.

“They have brought tremendous positive upgrading to the livelihood of the people. They have helped farmers to obtain more and higher income,” he added.

Meanwhile, Uggah said the way forward in the agriculture sector now is to embrace modern agriculture leveraging on Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI), and modern farming concepts like hydroponics and fertigation including using hybrid seeds.

He said these applications are essential tools for farmers in Sarawak in order to develop further and be more successful.

He also thanked Department of Agriculture Sarawak for being able to utilise and synchronise the usage of modern agricultural tools to greatly benefit the people.

“Using them too will attract more youth to the field. Getting the youth to be farmers is a very big challenge for us.

“But when they can see the manyfold benefits and good income, I am sure they will take modern agriculture as their career,” he said. — DayakDaily