INTEGRITY PLEDGE: A section of the staff making their oath of integrity.
MIRI: The Agricultural Sector Strategic Plan 2013-2020 developed by the Department of Agriculture (DOA) is to provide a roadmap to achieve its new vision by 2020.
Its director Lai Kui Fong said their new vision is to spearhead commercialisation of agriculture and transformation of the agriculture community to achieve high income.
“This vision statement seeks to transform agriculture to a high income earner that also contributes significantly to the economy,” he stated when officiating at DOA Regional Assembly cum its 4th Integrity Day at Dynasty Hotel here yesterday.
Touching on the strategic plan, he said it was aimed at transforming traditional farming into agribusiness by moving towards a model which is inclusive but simultaneously anchored on market-centricity, economies of scale and value chain integration along the Agriculture Integrated Supply Chain Model (Agris).
“The formulation of development thrusts, strategic objectives, initiatives and key performance indicators has taken cognisance of the current government’s agriculture policies, challenges, issues and needs of the industry.
“What is more important at the operation level is to translate the plan into programmes and activities.”
Besides that, he said it was their traditional function to implement agriculture development programmes.
“In the 9th Malaysia Plan (MP), we received RM428.9 million whereas in 10th MP, we expect to receive a total of RM697.6 million (assuming all applications for development fund are approved for 2014 and 2015).
“This is an increase of 28 per cent of the total development allocation received in 9th MP.”
The increase in allocation, he pointed, was due to implementation of ad-hoc programmes such as 1Azam, planting of rubber, oil palm and paddy under the National Key Economic Area (NKEA) and Government Transformation Programme (GTP) which had impacted the department’s capacity, manpower and strategies.
In order to ensure the success of the development programmes, he called for active interaction and facilitation of relevant agencies to resolve issues pertaining to production technology, policy matters, land matters, marketing, logistics, drainage and irrigation infrastructure, access roads, public utilities, statutory and regulatory, research & development, finance and credit matters.
“In light of the new challenges, we need to improve or introduce new approaches in our development strategies. One of them is Blue Ocean Strategy.
“We need to enhance inter-agency coordination and develop more commercial projects along the supply chain approach. This is to create bigger impact on the farming community because some of the conventional approaches that we have employed are not effective enough and difficult to sustain.”
Also present were DOA deputy director Boniface Anat Litis and Miri Division agricultural assistant officer Gilbert Igi.