KOTA KINABALU: The upcoming five-hectare Permanent Food Production Park (TKPM) in Putatan here, is expected to generate an income of more than RM5 million initially for Sabah’s food producing industries beginning next year.
Sabah Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Seri Yahya Hussin said all the basic infrastructures for the project’s research purposes, worth RM2.3 million, had been financed by the federal government and that they would start bearing the fruits latest by next year.
The cultivation of rock melon had been initiated first and this would be expanded as it was expected to provide good returns to the farmers and also be an additional food produce for Sabah, besides oil palm, Yahya told reporters after an inspection of the project site here yesterday.
Yahya, who is also Sabah Minister of Agriculture and Food Industry, expressed hope that the project would help further modernise the state’s agriculture sector, while increasing its agricultural produce and reducing its food imports.
At the event yesterday, he also said 11 participants including graduates in agriculture would be selected to participate in a project at the state’s permanent food production parks.
The candidates would be selected through a careful screening process to ensure the success of the project, he added.
Yahya also hoped that work would move on four more TKPM projects in the state that had been identified with a total allocation of RM10 million.
Two of the food parks would be in Kinabatangan, namely TKPM Sungai Koyah and TKPM Sungai Lokan while the TKPM Mandalipau in Papar was under planning and the TKPM Masilou in Kundasang was expected to start operations next year, he said.
Earlier, Yahya was briefed on the progress of the Tawau TKPM by the director of Sabah Agriculture Department, Datuk M C Ismail Salam.
Ismail said the food production park in Tawau, the first such park in the state, had registered an income of more than RM1 million.
The permanent food production parks in Sabah are among the high impact programmes being implemented under the Ministry of Agriculture and Agro-Based Industry.
Besides establishing permanent food production areas and agropreneurs, the programme is aimed at getting private sector participation in food production.
The implementation of TKPM involves negotiations between the federal government and the state government with the latter leasing the land areas identified as suitable for development.
The federal government meanwhile provides the basic infrastructures and facilities for the projects.
Among the agriculture produce cultivated in the parks include brinjals, water chestnut, chillies, corn, water melon, tomatoes, bananas, pepper, papayas and jet fruit. — Bernama