KUCHING, Nov 27: Rural Modern Agricultural Development Plan (SELDA) which serves to provide land for the landless, will be one of Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) Sarawak’s manifesto focus points in the coming 12th Sarawak Election.
In SELDA, PKR Sarawak secretary-general Joshua Jabeng said each participant’s family will be known as a ‘developer’ and allocated five hectares of land for commercial agriculture within a period of 15 years.
Where participation is voluntary and subject to certain conditions, he said each family who successfully develops the land will be given a valid certificate of ownership for the land.
“SELDA is also based on the Agricultural Strategy Reform with a specific focus on commercial agriculture. Each developer family is responsible for planting and producing produce especially food for local consumption while the surplus produce will be exported abroad.
“The Financial Capital to develop SELDA is in the form of a special loan from the State Treasury and will be repaid by the developer family in installments every month beginning second year of the contract,” he said.
Joshua said it is hoped that rural development initiatives through SELDA would curb migration to cities.
SELDA, he added, will provide all basic infrastructure to drive development which in turn creates job opportunities and decrease city migration, especially among the young.
“Young people and school leavers can start farms or start various SME/SMI (small and medium enterprises) ventures without leaving their hometowns. This is very meaningful to reduce the unemployment rate especially after the Covid-19 outbreak.
“Those who are eligible can take advantage of the micro-credit loan that will be offered by SELDA to open their own enterprises such as processing agricultural produce,” he said in a statement today.
Joshua also said that SELDA, which encourages managed agriculture, will contribute to environmental conservation which will in turn will help the tourism sector. — DayakDaily
