By DayakDaily Team
BELAGA, Aug 23: About 135 kilometres of agricultural roads are needed to connect more than 2,000 agricultural lots owned by residents of the Bakun Resettlement Scheme (BRS) in Sungai Asap here.
According to Murum assemblyman Kennedy Chukpai Ugon, agricultural roads were important to ensure farms and smallholdings had proper access, facilitating the movement of agricultural inputs and produce.
He said the Phase One agricultural road project in BRS Sungai Asap, implemented through the Upper Rajang Development Agency (URDA), had been delayed after the project contractor was terminated.
“Therefore, I would like to request that the project to upgrade farm roads and roads leading to smallholdings under the ministry and the Sarawak Agriculture Department be expanded and prioritised for smallholders in the Sungai Asap area,” he said.
He added the project, which began in 2019, was important to ensure that residents’ agricultural lots in the area had access to the main road.
“If Phase One cannot be implemented, Phase Two also cannot proceed as it connects to agricultural lots located further away from the main road,” he said at the handover ceremony for the Sungai Asap Sub-District Agricultural Station building site at the Sungai Asap Sub-District Agricultural Station in Belaga on Saturday (Aug 22), as reported by TVS.
Kennedy said many agricultural areas and smallholdings in Sungai Asap still required road access.
He also stressed that agricultural roads were an important component of agricultural sector development, as farmers needed access to transport fertilisers, seeds, machinery and other agricultural inputs to their farms, as well as to transport produce from farms to the market. — DayakDaily
