RM21 million funding for Agro-YES agricultural entrepreneurship

PUTRAJAYA: The Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industries (MAFI) has allocated RM21 million for the Agro-Youth Entrepreneur Scheme (Agro-YES), which offers financing of up to RM500,000 for young people in the field of agricultural entrepreneurship.

Agriculture and Food Industries Minister Datuk Seri Ronald Kiandee said Agro-YES, which is a rebranding of the Young Agropreneur Special Financing managed by Agrobank, was improved among others through reducing bureaucracy in the application chain and processing time.

Previously, he said all applications for funding had to go through departments or agencies under MAFI for recommendation before being submitted to Agrobank.

“With the current improvement, applications can continue to be made to Agrobank. The processing period was also shortened to 14 days compared to two months previously," he told the media after launching Agro-YES here yesterday.

Ronald said the financing under Agro-YES involved repayments of up to seven years with an interest rate of two per cent.

Last year, the number of young people who obtained grants and funding was 1,159 involving RM23 million compared to only 764 people with RM13.7 million in 2019, he said.

"We want to see young people aged 18 to 40 involved in the field of agriculture not only as farmers and livestock breeders but in the entire industry chain," he said.

Asked about the development of the proposed insurance scheme for the agriculture and agrofood industry, Ronald said the matter was still under discussion and Agrobank was tasked with formulating an appropriate form of policy.

He said insurance had become a necessity for industry players to see the country's agrofood sector fully developed.

Ronald was reported to have said that the insurance scheme was seen as necessary because the source of income of farmers was often affected due to natural disasters every year.

-- BERNAMA