Senior: Turn Tarat Agriculture Station into full fledged training centre

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Senior William Rade

KUCHING: The government is urged to turn the existing Tarat Agriculture Station into a full fledged Agriculture Training Centre to complement the existing Sarawak Agriculture Institute at Semengok.

Area Farmers Organisation (AFO) Serian chairman Senior William Rade said this training centre could cater for children of the present farming community and enterprising youths keen to go into full time commercial farming as their profession.

He reasoned that with this kind of facilities, young people particularly from rural areas did not have to migrate to urban areas to look for employment since their source of income come from the farming activities in and near their own villages.

“Moreover, it can also be a centre for farmers from all parts of Sarawak to be trained and guided by professional agriculturist to be successful farmers and agropreneurs in the state.

“This will complement the existing Agriculture Institute at Semengok which could no longer accommodate the yearly student intake,” he said when met yesterday.

Senior also suggested for a fund to be set up to assist children of farmers with good public examination results to further their studies.

He said the state and federal governments should collaborate to set up this fund, which could be called Tabung Yayasan Pendidikan Anak WargaTani, and handled by the respective registered AFOs in the state.

On another matter, Senior said Serian Division had the potential to become food production centre in the state and a one stop centre for the collection of agricultural produce due to its strategic location.

He also said the reviving of the Individual Quick Freezing (IQF) Plant in Tarat into a collection, processing and packaging centre (CPPC) was a good move and a step ahead to help the local farmers to send their agricultural produce like durian and other fruits for processing, packing and grading for local or overseas market.

“Selected and full time farmers must be trained in agricultural modern farming to enable them to increase their production and incomes.

“The government also needs to look into the possibility of constructing agriculture roads in rural areas that are deemed productive and potential food baskets of the area.

“This will enable the farmers to transport their produce to the markets faster. Also, look into the possibility of opening more idle rural land for the implementation of contract farming and opening a centre for the cultivation of hybrid paddy seedlings to increase yield of paddy farmers,” he said.

On the the ongoing political drama in the country which is also affecting the farming communities, Senior noted that political leaders from both sides of the political divide were pushing for their political agenda but forgetting the very core people who had put them in power.

On behalf of farmers in Serian, he urged these political leaders to really look and put in their master plan how to address their plight.

“When all are in place for the farming community, there is no reasons why they should not give their undivided support to whoever their political leaders are,” he said.