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By Lian Cheng
KUCHING, July 5: Grassroots leaders have taken over Area Farmers’ Organisations (PPKs), leading to Food Industry, Commodity and Regional Development Minister Dato Sri Dr Stephen Rundi vowing to clean up these local organisations set up to help farmers.
Dr Rundi said there are in total 28 PPKs across Sarawak with more than 170,000 members whom he said “not all are farmers”.
“The grassroots leadership took over PPKs, but I want them to clean up, so that we know exactly how many are actually active in farming. Then we can categorise them,” said Dr Rundi when inspecting the progress of State Farmers’ Organisation Sarawak (PPNS) Complex at Asajaya, Samarahan today.
On the progress of PPNS Complex, he said the project which currently stands at 72 per cent completion will be completed before August 31.
Stressing that PPKs and PPNS are two different entities, and that PPNS’ role is to provide guidance to the former, Dr Rundi said the PPNS Complex will function as an anchor point for collecting, processing, storage and marketing for agricultural produce for the whole of Sarawak.
Meanwhile, Dr Rundi reiterated the vision of making Sarawak a net exporter of food by 2023, which he describes as a “tremendous task” where many areas under the ministry have to “start on scratch”.
The first challenge he said was the need to change the mindset of farmers so that they will engage in modern farming including the application of technology and machinery.
Secondly, the ministry has to look into suitable crops, where four focal fruits have been identified including pineapple, banana, durian and coconut which can be developed into an industry.
“We have yet to have a factory to actually be the off-takers. So for all these fresh products, the only way to reach outside markets is to have finished products, meaning all processes are downstream.
“Therefore, it is pertinent for us to have anchor farming who have the connection and market outside Sarawak and so on,” said Dr Rundi.
He said there are foreign investors from Singapore and China showing interest in Sarawak, especially the availability of vast land areas.
However, Dr Rundi said, agriculture is not that simple, as despite the ample land avaiy, different crops require different soil types, apart from issues related to topography. — DayakDaily
