Four experienced luminaries in agriculture received letters of appointment as MPPN members

PUTRAJAYA: Former chief secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA), Datuk Dr Zulkifli Idris, was one of the four experienced figures in the field of agriculture that received their letters of appointment as members of ‘Majlis Penasihat Pertanian Negara’ (MPPN) or the National Agricultural Advisory Council on 1 November.

The letters were presented by the the Minister of Agriculture and Agro-based Industry, Datuk Salahuddin Ayub, to the new members of MPPN that was formed in accordance with the decision made by the Federal Cabinet in its meeting on 30 May.

Apart from Zulkifli, three other personalities appointed to the council were former vice chancellor of Universiti Putra Malaysia, Tan Sri Datuk Syed Jalaludin Syed, a prominent businessman in the dairy industry, Datuk Yap Yun Fook, and successful agropreneur, Mohd Hisyamuddin Ghazali.

The new appointments meant MPPN is currently comprised of seven members after the earlier appointments of Tan Sri Abdul Rahman Mamat as the Chairman, Tan Sri Francis Lau Tuang Nguang and Prof. Datin Paduka Dr Fatimah Mohd Arshad.

With these appointments, MPPN hoped to combine the broad expertise and experiences of its members in his or her field so that it can play its roles as the advisory body representing the various parties with interests.

This was to enable discussions to be held to identify and give suggestions on the directions of the agricultural sector including matters related to food security so that it is in tandem with current needs.

Thus far, MPPN already held seven meetings since its formation and had submitted recommendations based on its observations in the agricultural sector.

All the recommendations will be studied further so that they can be considered and used by the ministry in planning the directions as well as in drafting DAN 2.0 that will become the core for the implementation of the ministry’s policies in 2021 until 2030.

MPPN’s opinions will also be adopted as feed-backs to the Federal Cabinet in its meetings to fulfill the mandate that was given to MPPN to come up with ideas on how to realise the hopes and aspirations of the Pakatan Harapan Government in its efforts to once again uphold the national agricultural sector as well as to look after the well-being of farmers.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Agro-based Industry is also inviting the general public to submit any suggestion and feed-back that they want to highlight to MPPN in the effort to strengthen the country’s agricultural sector, via MPPN’s link in MoA official portal (www.moa.gov.my).