THE Modernisation of Agriculture, Native Land and Regional Development Ministry has identified various development and business models that can accelerate agriculture and rural economy transformation.
Minister in charge Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas told the State Legislative Assembly (DUN) this yesterday morning in his winding-up speech.
For a start, he added his ministry was adopting and promoting three generic business models, including the In-Situ Development Model where farmers were given on-site assistance for agriculture activities of their choice.
“The assistance is normally in the form of subsidies for farm infrastructure, equipment and farm inputs,” Uggah explained.
He said farmers would also be given technical and farm services as well as regulatory support.
Pointing out the model was adopted for the Subsidy Scheme Programme and commercial agriculture projects of the Agriculture Department, he said: “The second is the Public-Private Sector Partnership (PPP) Model which involves the participation of the government, private sector and land owners from different components of the business enterprise.
“In this model, each party will have specific roles and obligations which are governed by a contract agreement.
“Variants of this model include the Collection, Processing and Packaging Centre (CPPC) projects and the Anchor Farming (AF) projects,” explained Uggah.
He added: “The third is the Private Sector Investment (PSI) Model. “In this model, the private sector will provide the investment capital while the government may finance public infrastructure and amenities as well as provide investment incentives and regulatory support.”
Uggah said his ministry was planning for the transformation of the agriculture and rural economy.
“The economic sectors under the purview of my Ministry include crops, livestock, fishery and agro-based industries,” he said.
The minister also highlighted the development goals or strategic objectives of his ministry which were to make Sarawak a net exporter of food products by year 2030 and strengthen the state’s food security position, raise rural incomes in order to reduce the incidence of rural poverty and bridge the present rural-urban income gap, increase youth participation in agriculture as a means of addressing the problem of the state’s ageing and declining farming population and increase the agriculture sector contribution to the state’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), especially for agro-food sub-sector.
