More smart farming seminars to achieve goal of transforming Sabah agriculture industry
KOTA KINABALU: More seminars will be organised by the Sabah Agriculture and Fisheries Ministry on smart farming to raise awareness among small and medium agricultural enterprises about the need to transform agricultural practices.
Its minister Datuk Seri Dr Jeffrey Kitingan said the seminars would also inform participants of the various opportunities in the agricultural and fisheries sectors based on the participants’ capabilities and interests.
“I am optimistic that such seminars will result in closer collaborations among industry players, the government and the people,” he said in a statement on Sunday (Aug 21).
“This will ensure that we are able to achieve our goal of transforming the agriculture industry through digitalisation.
“I am confident that as more people are going into agriculture and our rural farmers adopt modern and smart farming practices, they will be able to contribute more significantly towards our self-sufficiency level (SSL),” he added.
The Deputy Chief Minister made the remarks after officiating at the Agriculture Transformation and Digitalisation Seminar, which was co-hosted by the ministry and SME Association of Sabah in the interior Keningau district on Friday (Aug 19).
Kitingan added that the digitalisation of agriculture would benefit farmers by allowing them to reduce their production costs while maximising profits through the use of Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices such as drones, accurate weather forecasting, soil analysis and other tools.
He said Sabah would be able to increase the output of its food industry while the introduction of advanced technologies would also create new jobs that the state did not previously have.
“All of this is possible if we all work together as one mind. In the end, I hope it will fulfill my dream of Sabah becoming a net food exporter,” he said.
To that end, Kitingan said his ministry would do anything such as hold dialogues and seminars at the grassroots level to reach the target groups.
He believed that people at the grassroots level were eager and interested to find ways to improve their output.
The presence of AgroBank and the Sabah Credit Corporation (SCC) at the seminar, he said, also demonstrated that these financial institutions wanted to help the people.
“They even provide participants with low-interest loans to encourage them to transform and modernise their agricultural practices,” he said.
In terms of marketing, Kitingan agreed that more collection centres are needed in Sabah and that the current six Agricultural Products Collection Centres (APCC) run by the Rural Development Corporation (KPD) are insufficient to serve everyone.
“We intend to establish APCCs and mini collection centres in all districts throughout Sabah. It will require a very high cost but this is a need that must be met,” he said.