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By Wilfred Pilo
KUCHING, June 17: Sarawak is to seek help from India and Indonesia to fill the gap in the number of veterinarians to help the State’s livestock industry, says Deputy Minister of Food Industry, Commodity, and Regional Development Martin Ben
He said the Department of Veterinary Services Sarawak (DVSS) is still ‘young’ after it split from the Department of Agriculture (DOA) in 2018, adding that the DVSS currently has 100 veterinarians compared to Sabah, which has 700 or more.
“There is pressure for DVSS to help the livestock industry at the moment,” he said before launching PPES Ternak Sdn Bhd’s first-ever ‘Cattle Auction Day’ at their Siburan Halal Abattoir Complex today.
He said Sarawak hoped to catch up by 2030, which is why it needs to learn from countries like India and Indonesia.
“We have to learn and see what they could offer us in providing a professional workforce. This is the ministry’s plan to help our veterinarians,” he said.
He revealed that Sarawak brought contract veterinary officers from these countries and sent students to their universities and agriculture institutions.
“That is the way to catch up as institutions like Universiti Pertanian Malaysia (UPM) and Universiti Malaysia Kelantan (UMK) only take 200 students into their veterinary faculty, and 90 to 95 per cent will later go to the private sector.
“The ministry also plans to bring and work together with international institutions overseas that we visited in the last few years. We also want to collaborate with PPES Ternak and DOA to help our agriculture sector and the livestock industry,” he said.
He further disclosed that to meet the self-sufficiency level (SSL) in food security in livestock for beef or buffalo meat, there is a need to increase it by the current 12 per cent to 25 per cent.
“To achieve this, we need 60,000 cattle and 20,000 buffalos by 2030—now we have 17,000 cows and 6,500 buffalos, and the government forbids the slaughter of cows that are still productive,” he said.
Ministry permanent secretary Sirai Daha, Sarawak Economic Development Corporation (SEDC) chairman Tan Sri Datuk Amar Abdul Aziz Husain, Veterinary Service Department Sarawak director Dr Adrian Susin Ambud, and PPES Ternak general manager Artino Arshad were present during the auction. — DayakDaily
