KUCHING, Dec 29: The agriculture sector has to become more productive as more large-scale plantation farms are needed to further improve Sarawak’s food sufficiency levels.
Raising this, Parti Bumi Kenyalang (PBK) president Voon Lee Shan said Sarawak is blessed with huge fertile land and good weather but there are hardly any large scale agriculture farms while the food processing industry is growing too slow to provide enough food for Sarawakians.
“Most of our rice, other grains and meat are imported and this should not be the case.
“The year 2023 will likely be gloomy if the conflict in Ukraine is not resolved soon. We have experienced prices of goods and services go up sharply and it is expected to continue in 2023 and everything will be affected,” he said in a statement today.
Voon urged the governments to act to ensure that industries and those from the lower income group will not be badly hit.
“While leaders have talked a lot about job security and food security, nothing has improved much.
“There could be scarcity of certain commodities and food while recession is inevitable in 2023. Business owners, retirees and those with fixed income will be hit hard. It is sad to see working class people lining up to withdraw their savings from the Employees Provident Fund (EPF),” he added.
Even if the conflict in Ukraine ends, Voon said it will still take time for the global economy to recover and hence, the governments must do the necessary to respond and protect the people. — DayakDaily
