Community garden programme to assist B40 farmers

The Community Garden programme, which provides the opportunity for participants to grow short-term crops especially vegetables, are being carried out actively throughout the country, the Dewan Rakyat was told today.

Agriculture and Food Industries Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ronald Kiandee said under the National Economic Recovery Plan (PENJANA), a total of RM10 million has been allocated for the urban farming programme which was expected to benefit 800 communities and 12,000 participants.

“The government hopes this allocation will facilitate food production process besides ensuring the safety of food although the country is hit by the COVID-19 pandemic,” he said during the oral question and answer session in Parliament.

He was responding to a supplementary question from Ahmad Fahmi Mohamed Fadzil (PH-Lembah Pantai) on the development of PENJANA’s RM10 million allocation to help the farmers in the B40 group.

Kiandee said through PENJANA, the government also allocated a total of RM350 million under the Micro-Credit Financing for Agropreneurs to revive the food production industry which was affected by the pandemic.

“Currently, the self-sufficiency level (SSL) is 70 per cent, which means we can support 70 per cent of the demand while another 30 per cent is supported by imported rice,” he said in response to a supplementary question from Datuk Salim Sharif (BN-Jempol) who wanted to know how far does the technology in agriculture could increase the country’s rice production.

Meanwhile, Kiandee said the government has conducted short and long-term training involving latest technology to produce skilled workers and agropreneurs, comprising youths aged between 18 and 40.

“We also integrate the modern agriculture technologies such as agro robotic, sensor, precision farming, drones, agriculture data development, Internet of Things applications and crop factory model,” he said.

He said this in response to Ahmad Fahmi’s original question on the government’s plan in terms of human resources, technological resources and automation for the Third National Agricultural Policy (‪1998-2010‬) and the National Agrofood Policy (‪2011-2020‬) to increase food production in ensuring food security could be achieved by 2050.

-- BERNAMA