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Sarawak can be nation’s food basket

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KUCHING: A state-based non-governmental organisation (NGO) has suggested that the state government play a role in helping to reduce the country’s massive food import bill.

The Sarawak Institute for Public Affairs (Sipa) said the state could exploit its massive landbank for agricultural projects to feed the country’s growing population.

“It was reported recently that Malaysia imported more than RM77 billion worth of agricultural products in 2018.

“This clearly shows that we imported most of our food needs,” its director Philip Wong said in a statement yesterday.

The NGO said too much money is wasted on food imports while at the same time the country is too dependent on oil palms and rubber trees.

“There is a need to diversify our range of agricultural produce which could also support SME enterprises in return.  Currently, most of our lands are devoted to planting oil palms — about six million hectares out of eight million hectares of cultivated land or approximately 75 percent of the total cultivated land.

“Out of the total, less than one million hectares are planted with other agriculture uses,” claimed Wong.

Warning that this scenario has placed Malaysia in a “very unhealthy situation”, he said Sarawak can play a critical role here with its massive landbank, arguing that the state’s vast traits of agricultural land can become the food basket of the nation.

“We urge the government to parcel out the state lands and sell to those farmers that are willing and capable to utilise these lands for productive use. In time when our agriculture industry flourishes, they will create multiplier effects on the economy in areas of logistics, financing, warehousing, insurance, medicine, repairs and IT technology for smart agriculture.”

Stressing idle lands will not propel the nation or state forward, he said a win-win situation is for the state and federal governments to team up on utilising these lands for the development of the nation.

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