Income of poor farmers and fishermen improving, says MP

By VANES DEVINDRAN
vanes@thestar.com.my

ASSISTANCE rendered to poor farmers and fishermen in the Santubong area in terms of raw materials and equipment are producing positive returns, says Deputy Parliament Speaker Datuk Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar.
He revealed that recently a particular group of recipients gained a total of RM15,000, triple the amount of what had been invested in the materials and equipment.
“The first time we did this (providing assistance) was four years ago and I did an evaluation on the income of the recipients before and after the assistance. There was an increase,” he told reporters after giving out assistance to fishermen and farmers in the Santubong consitituency in Kuching yesterday.
Junaidi, who is Santubong MP, also said there had been no reports so far on recipients selling the raw materials or equipment given to them.
“They are all making use of the items and so this is working towards a positive direction,” he said.
He said he worked with the Fishermen and Farmers Associations in his constituency to keep tabs on the development after giving out the assistance.
Having said that, Junaidi urge the villagers to work in a more coordinated manner so that it would be easier and much more efficient when it comes to finding customers for their products.
He said proper delegation was the key to making a business thrive in a village that was dabbling with the same product.
“They must work as a team. Not all should plant or fish. You need to have someone doing the fishing and farming, and also someone to coordinate and focus on marketing. If all were to do one job, then who’s going to focus on marketing or packaging?” he said.
He said a village must also diversify their farming according to market demand and avoid focusing on one kind of crop or fruit tree alone.
He advised the people to seek advice from agencies like the Agriculture Department and also the Federal Agriculture and Marketing Authority.
Yesterday’s ceremony had 183 recipients and the total cost of the raw materials and equipment supplied namely fertilisers, oven, engine pump, fishing net and bush cutter, came to around RM100,000.
Junaidi said with the rising cost of materials these days, his side would put in a request for additional funding for next year.

‘Castor plantation has potential’

by Lim How Pin. Posted on October 11, 2010, Monday

KUCHING: A factory to extract castor – an oilbearing crop – may be set up in Kuching division by 2013. Its presence will position Malaysia as a major castor contributor.

BEARING FRUIT: Tan (centre) with Casa Kinabalu chairman Salamat Othman (fourth right) and others pose with castor plants. — Photo by Louis Koh

Assistant minister in the Chief Minister’s Department Tan Joo Phoi said castor plantation had high potential to generate more revenues for the country as the extracted product could be exported to Europe, the US, China, India and Russia.

“The climate here is suitable for planting castor and once it is in mass production, we can export extracted castor oil to foreign markets. “More farmers in the state should be part of the castor plantation programme because castor oil comes with high global demand,” he said at the castor plantation harvesting ceremony undertaken by Casa Kinabalu Sdn Bhd at the Tapah Community Hall, over 20 miles from here yesterday.

Tan, who is Batu Kawah assemblyman, was pleased that the first batch of castor plantation in Tapah was ready for harvesting.

“I remember launching the plantation site two or three months ago and it is now almost harvest time. It shows that castor plants bear fruits within months and the industry is set to bring about stable income for farmers.”

Noting that Casa Kinabalu Sdn Bhd is a West Malaysia-based corporation, he said it should work closely with some local institutes here to come up with training courses to groom the industry.

Castor oil can be used as transport biofuel, a renewable alternative to petrol, a refined fuel made from hydrocarbon oil, according to a pamphlet Casa Kinabalu Sdn Bhd distributed yesterday. The world annual production has reached 1.2 million tonnes with India, China and Brazil as the major producing countries.

Two Sarawak breeders rewarded

Two Sarawak breeders rewarded

Tuesday, 30 November 2010 14:07

KUALA LUMPUR: A ruminant breeder from Mukah and a livestock entrepreneur from Kuching-Serian Road were among award winners at the Malaysian Agriculture, Horticulture and Agro-tourism Show (MAHA) 2010 launched by Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak at the Malaysian Agro Exposition Park Serdang (MAEPS) last Saturday.

The two bagged for the first time, the National Awards for Successful Ruminant Ent repreneur and the Successful Non-Ruminant Entrepreneur Categories, respectively. Hajah Fatimah bint i Suhaibo, who is the manager of FG Multifarm received her award as the National winner in the Successful Ruminant Entrepreneur category for her success as the entrepreneur for a goat and cattle farm, FG Multifarm at Km28, Mukah- Balingian coastal highway.

Her farm holds around 1,800 heads of various breeds of goats, sheep and cattle at its peak, and currently supplies domestic demands, and have also made exports of live animals to Brunei.

In addition, FG Multifarm also processes solid and liquid fertilisers from animal wastes from the farm. This helps the farm to practice ‘zero waste’ farming with active local inputs to manage costs. The farm also formulates its own animal feed from local resources and maize. Maize is planted by Mukah Agro Farm of which Hajah Fatimah is the Chairman and CEO. Mukah Agro Farm applies the concept of contract farming in developing ‘idle’ land in Mukah.

It is able to do this by focusing on the hardcore poor who are listed in the e-kasih programme, with the help of TEKUN. In addition, the farm also provides employment to single mothers in the processing of farm products before they are dispatched to the market. Both FG Multifarm and Mukah Agro Farm offer attachment training to local entrepreneurs, university students and the Semenggok Agriculture Institute.

Hajah Fatimah also won in the state-level Small Ruminant Category at the state-level Farmers, Breeders and Fishermen’s Day (HPPN) held at Betong recently.

In the same event, Sarawak’s premier livestock breeder, Dr Ng Siew Thiam from QL Livestock Farming Sdn Bhd, Kuching, won the National level Successful Non-ruminant category. Ng is the Executive Director of QL Livestock Farming, a 90- acre farm at Mile 25, Kuching- Serian Road. The farm has more than 600,000 chickens and produces around 400,000 eggs daily. The farm is fully automated. The farm’s products are supplied to the local market and exported to Indonesia and Hong Kong.

The farm also produces its own animal feed from maize grains imported from India, Argentina and Thailand and employs 180 workers.

Ng expressed interest in buying locally produced maize of which his co-winner Hajah Fatimah Suhaibo is a leading producer in Sarawak. The farm also offers attachment training to livestock breeders, university students and local entrepreneurs.

Ng was also a winner in a similar category at the state-level Farmers, Breeders and Fishermen’s Day held at Betong recently.