Masing and his wife Puan Sri Datin Amar Corrine together with their relatives planting hill paddy at their farm, not far from Tapah Bazaar along the Kuching-Serian Road yesterday.
KUCHING: In the wake of the recent fuel price hike, one way for landowners to cushion the impact of its domino effect is to use their land fully.
In giving this advice, Land Development Minister Tan Sri Datuk Amar Dr James Jemut Masing said the Dayaks, for example, still had plenty of land.
“Malaysians who have land should till their land for food self-sufficiency. All it needs is the willingness to work hard by utilising the land. It would certainly reduce the cost of living.
“I find farming most rewarding,” Masing told thesundaypost here yesterday.
He added this was in line with the government’s effort to help reduce the people’s living expenses, especially among Dayak landowners.
“Cultivate it and the land will give the owner wealth. Leave it uncultivated, and the owner will live in misery. Hard work makes the difference.”
Sharing his personal experience, he said, “My wife and I plant hill paddy. We have been doing this since 1992 and since then we have been self-sufficient in rice. With fish, chickens, goats and deer from our farm, we are practically sufficient in our food supplies. It certainly reduces our household expenditure”.
Masing stressed that land would becomes assets if only the land owners utilised it.
“We must turn dirt into wealth, but only hard work will make it possible,” added the PRS president.
Read more: http://www.theborneopost.com/2014/10/05/masing-till-land-to-cushion-impact-of-rising-cost-of-living/#ixzz3FGnFldpe
