THE Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries and its eight Departments/Agencies have worked hard over the past year to realise the achievement of Sabah Maju Jaya (SMJ) aspiration which celebrates its first anniversary on March 29, 2022.
Deputy Chief Minister cum Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries Datuk Seri Dr Jeffrey G. Kitingan said as many as 137 initiatives have been outlined for the agricultural sector which is a crucial hub for the development of SMJ.
The rest of the interview:
What steps are the Ministry taking to ensure food security in Sabah, especially in essential items like rice, chicken, fish and pork?
The government is carrying out all the strategies necessary to strengthen Sabah’s agricultural sector and ensure that food supplies like rice and milk remain stable. The Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries has developed four major initiatives to increase rice production and achieve a rice self-sufficiency level (SSL) of 60 per cent by 2030.
The four major initiatives are:
Increasing rice productivity and yield in existing planting areas by using technology, mechanisation and automation, planting rice twice a year (in stages) in accord with the irrigation system development level, using High Yielding Variety (HYV) rice seeds and rehabilitating abandoned paddy fields.
Upgrading existing irrigation and drainage systems and building a new irrigation and drainage system for an area of 17,805 ha through the Drainage and Irrigation Department (DID)
Intensifying research and development (R&D) activities
Expanding the physical area of paddy fields. This includes a proposal to develop 11,000 hectares of rice plantations in Felda Lahad Datu
As for maize, Sabah currently produced 0.01 per cent of its maize needs last year, with only 14 hectares of land dedicated to the crop, yielding 14 MT against a total annual demand of 153,151 MT. The Sabah government is determined to raise maize output by 3.68 per cent in 2025 and 14.88 per cent by 2030