MOA shares same aspiration as state on direction of agriculture – Uggah

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Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas (file photo)

 

KUCHING: Minister of Agriculture and Agro-based Industry (MOA) Salahuddin Ayub shares the same aspiration with Sarawak on the future direction of agriculture industry, noted Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas.

“We welcome the positive gesture from Minister of Agriculture from Kuala Lumpur who indicating that they will continue to collaborate toward the common interest of developing the agriculture industry,” he told The Borneo Post.

Uggah was commenting on his meeting with MOA delegation lead by Salahuddin at the Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Dr Abang Johari Tun Openg’s office Friday morning.

“We seems to have similar focus of trying to reduce our import and increasing our export, moving toward net export of our products in the future,” Uggah, whom is also Minister of Agricultural Modernisation, Native Land and Regional Development (MANRED) added.

Uggah also revealed that MOA and MANRED are finding ways on how to further develop the meat and dairy industries in Sarawak.

“There was also a discussion on how to move forward on the ruminant industry – cattle, goat and such, and also on how to develop Jelapang Padi in Sarawak because the Minister realise that we have a lot of lands, and at the same time the lands in Semenanjung are getting more scarce. These are the potential areas,” he explained.

Overall, Uggah is very happy that the federal government and state government are sharing the same vision of turning agriculture into a modern industry.

“It is a very fruitful meeting between the State Agriculture Ministry and Federal Agriculture Ministry.  On modern farming, he is looking at the same direction as we are on precision agriculture – the need to increase productivity, to be able to produce export quality products and at the same time resolve the problem of shortage of manpower. Precision farming is the direction now,” he said.