Government aims to increase fishermen's income to RM5,000 a month

Agriculture and Agro-based Industry Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Shabery Cheek said the programmes could help fishermen who often faced unstable income, especially during the monsoon season.

"According to a study conducted by the Department of Fisheries Malaysia, there are over 100,000 registered fishermen and 70 per cent of them earn more than RM1,500 a month.

"However, this amount is still very little and does not really guarantee they have pulled themselves out of poverty .

"That is why the government is providing this way out as we do not want the fishermen to depend merely on their catch but to expand their scope by venturing into other industries such as cage or pond fish farming, " he told reporters after visiting the Marine Cage Fish Culture Project at Pendas River estuary near here today.

SHABERY-FISHERMEN 2 (LAST) ISKANDAR PUTERI

According to Ahmad Shabery the government has provided various assistance to the fishermen. Nevertheless, it was important to ensure the fishermen of today are able to compete, especially in entrepreneurship.

"Nowadays, the fishermen have their own boats and only need to find a location to market their catch and need not sell their catch to middlemen at low prices.

"We need to transform these fishermen as entrepreneurs capable of delivering output at competitive prices and able to seek markets through different support activities within the value chain," he noted.

As such, he said, the government would continue to focus on fishermen by providing them with assistance in the form of fish cages and fish seeds to meet this objective.