Bobby William
KUCHING (May 15): The government must have a mechanism in place to make funds available for native land owners who want to develop their land for agricultural purpose, said Parti Bansa Dayak Sarawak (PBDS) Baru president Bobby William.
He pointed out one of the ways is by giving land titles to native land so that the land can be used as collateral for loans from banks.
“A majority of Dayaks owned huge tracts of land and are involved in commercial agriculture but are not able to expand or even start due to lack of funds.
“If the government is serious in helping the Dayaks, then give Dayaks the means to develop their land,” he said in a statement today.
He was responding to Minister for Modernisation of Agriculture and Regional Development Dato Sri Dr Stephen Rundi who in news reports had said members of farmers associations in Sarawak should change their mindsets and look at agriculture as an industry.
Dr Rundi was quoted as saying that while he acknowledged that people could say all kinds of things about agriculture, from smart-farming to those utilising the Internet of Things (IOT), but to him, it all boiled down to one simple thing – ‘dollars and cents’.
According to Bobby, PBDS opined that while Dr Rundi can talk about dollars and cents but that would be akin to asking one to fly to the moon without the proper vehicle to support such an endeavor.
“Isn’t that an empty remark and only playing to the gallery?
“As a member and minister in the ruling GPS government, Dr Rundi should use his influence to urge the GPS government to give (Sarawak Land Code) Section 18 land titles to native landowners, which has been long overdue.
“PBDS believed that if Sarawak endeavours to move from subsistence farming to agro-preneurship, and then to agro-industry, the natives must be given a a chance to use their land to obtain loans which only land titles under Section 18 would be accepted by financial institutions,” he said.
He believed that this would contribute to the vision of RM6,000 income per household that would be a reality as envisioned by Dr Rundi.
“The government also should take bigger responsibility to build more factories to cater to the local produce,” he added.