Pemuda PBB Padungan menyambut baik keputusan Kerajaan Barisan Nasional dibawah kepimpinan Datuk Patinggi Datuk Seri Mohd Najib Tun Abdul Razak, melalui Kementerian Perdagangan Dalam Negeri, Koperasi dan Kepenggunaan, bersetuju untuk projek padi Lingga-Banting diteruskan.
Kami berpendapat ini adalah satu langkah yang bijak kerana ianya akan berupaya untuk membantu negara mengurangkan import beras dari negara luar.
Kami juga berharap Kerajaan Barisan Nasional akan melaksanakan projek padi di kawasan-kawasan lain di Sarawak untuk membolehkan Sarawak menjadi sebuah negeri jelapang padi.
Kami berpendapat projek tersebut bukan sahaja berupaya untuk membantu mengurangkan import beras tetapi juga menyediakan peluang pekerjaan kepada rakyat Sarawak yang berminat untuk membabitkan diri dengan industri tani.
Sekian. Terima kasih.
Ir. Haidel Heli
Ketua Pemuda PBB Padungan
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by Geryl Ogilvy Ruekeith, reporters@theborneopost.com.
Posted on August 23, 2011, Tuesday
KUCHING: Batang Lupar MP Datuk Rohani Abdul Karim hopes that the development of a rice bowl project in Lingga-Banting would be expedited to ensure adequate food supply for the state and country.
The Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism Deputy Minister told The Borneo Post yesterday that a request had been made to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak who already agreed for the continuation of the project.
Now awaiting progress reports from Ministry of Modernisation of Agriculture, Rohani stated that the project would be undertaken by Performance Management and Delivery Unit (Pemandu) under the National Key Economic Areas (NKEA).
“The project will cover some 5,000 hectares in Lingga-Banting. Financial reports and comprehensive data such as farmers and areas involved in the project are yet to be determined,” she said.
She mentioned that discussions with Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Alfred Jabu Numpang, who is also Minister of Modernisation of Agriculture, would be held to study the project details and development.
“The project would become a key economic activity for the people of Lingga-Banting. This project would also ensure less dependency on imported rice,” Rohani pointed out.
In a working trip to Cameron Highlands in April last year, she mentioned that the rice bowl project would also be developed in Kota Belud, Sabah, covering 8,000 hectares of land.
“These projects are important to reduce rice imports for the two states which are now at 70 per cent each,” she said after officiating at a Sabah-Sarawak Agriculture Liaison Meeting there attended by some 100 delegates from the agriculture departments of the two states.
She highlighted that rice cultivation in the two east Malaysian states needed to be increased substantially following the food crisis in 2008. As reported in The Borneo Post yesterday, Land Development Minister Tan Sri Dr James Masing suggested that areas in Limbang River valley and Sri Aman be turned into huge ‘rice bowls’ considering that the land and terrain there are suitable for irrigation.
He said if the government wanted to build a dam in Limbang, it should not only be used to generate energy but also for irrigation of padi farms. Currently, the state imports rice from Vietnam and Thailand, and has rice reserve of seven months.
Masing stressed that the state must aim for 100 per cent self-sufficiency in rice.
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