Dr Stephen Rundi Itom.
KUCHING (Aug 24): Farmers must be fully aware of the challenges they might come across especially in terms of diseases infecting their farm produce, cautions Modernisation of Agriculture and Regional Development Minister Dato Sri Dr Stephen Rundi Utom.
He said they must find ways and means to mitigate the challenges they faced.
He cited the African Swine Fever (ASF) situation in Sarawak as one of the challenges currently faced by pig breeders and farmers.
“There is nothing much we can do because this virus came from the border and so on.
“So all we have to do is prevent the virus from spreading further to other parts of Sarawak,” he told reporters after launching his ministry’s Innovative & Creative Circle (ICC) Mini Convention at a hotel here today.
On the claim by Michael Kong of DAP Sarawak that pig carcasses might have been dumped into Sungai Semenggo 2 near here, Dr Rundi said actions had been taken to remove them.
“This is one of those so-called illegal ways of dumping. But the Department of Veterinary Services (DVS) has been notified and they have actually noted and will go look into it.
“Previously we also had such cases in Miri and so on. We are still struggling…but [the ASF situation]is getting better now,” he said.
He said the ministry will provide some assistance to pig breeders or farmers who have to cull their pigs.
“We will give them some kind of assistance. It’s a great loss for some of them including those from industrial, commercial and backyard (pig farming),” he said.
Kong, who is special assistant to DAP chairman Chong Chieng Jen, in a statement earlier had urged authorities to investigate sacks dumped into Sungai Semenggo 2, which allegedly contained pig carcasses.
He claimed that during a visit to the river recently, six sacks could still be seen sitting in the river.
He also said that local residents had complained of a foul smell coming from the river and that one of them had seen about eight sacks said to contain the pig carcasses in the river over the past few days.