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By Chris Lidom and Karen Bong
KUCHING, Sept 25: The Sarawak government is considering a name change for the Department of Agriculture to the ‘Department of Food Industry’ as part of its efforts to transform the traditional perspective of the agriculture sector into a modern, corporate, sustainable, and technology-driven food industry.
Sarawak, situated in a geographically stable region with vast land resources and a population of 2.8 billion, is well-positioned to leverage its comparative advantages and strengths to develop the food industry.
Premier of Sarawak Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Abang Johari Tun Openg emphasised that Sarawak can contribute to the global demand for food, with half of the world’s seven billion population concentrated in the Asian and Asean regions.
“We are still discussing and determining the right time to change the department’s name.
“We need to revolutionise the agriculture sector, rooted in subsistence concept, traditional shifting farming practices and ‘menuai’ (or harvest) culture for the past six decades. While preserving these practices, we must transition to a modern, technology-based approach.
“In the past, you used a dialling phone, but today you use a smartphone. We need to change the mindset of farmers to a more corporate one,” he told a press conference after officiating at the 1st International Conference on Biotechnology, Smart Farming, and Entrepreneurship for Food Security (BioSFE) 2023 at Riverside Majestic Hotel today.
Abang Johari reiterated the need to do away with the ‘poor farmers struggling with hardship’ perspective and elevate their status to ‘farm managers’, which is better in the realm of business as agriculture has evolved beyond just food cultivation to now encompassing a comprehensive supply chain from farm to market, including exports.
Pointing out the etymology of ‘agriculture’, derived from ‘agri’ (agrarian or land cultivation) and ‘culture’ (human intellect and customs) or in Malay known as ‘budaya kebun’, he highlighted that Sarawak cannot move forward without embracing technology to increase food production to meet local and global demands.
“We have to look inward at our strengths, and this sector must be developed to contribute to our friends in this region, not to mention Europe and the United States. Capturing half of the Asian market would be enough for us,” he said.
With the goal of becoming a net food exporter by 2030, Abang Johari called upon stakeholders to embrace technology, revitalise nutrient-depleted soils, optimise land usage, and establish a circular economy by converting waste into fertilisers and animal feeds.
“This is where we need experts to advise us on what to do, provide guidance on factors of production that we have an advantage on, adoption of AI (artificial intelligence) to determine the standard of our soils and input industry standards.
“This is the way forward for Sarawak, but we need technologists to grow the food sector,” he added.
BioSFE 2023, a collaborative effort by Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) Sarawak branch, the Ministry of Food Industry, Commodity and Regional Development (M-Ficord), and the National Chung Cheng University of Taiwan, brought together experts, researchers, entrepreneurs, and policymakers from around the world.
The event aims to foster collaboration, facilitate the exchange of ideas, and drive the evolution of the agriculture sector towards Agriculture Revolution 4.0.
M-Ficord Minister Dato Sri Dr Stephen Rundi, Deputy Minister of Regional Development Martin Ben, Deputy State Secretary Hii Chang Kee and UiTM vice-chancellor Prof Datuk Dr Roziah Mohd Janor were among those present. — DayakDaily
