KUALA LANGAT, July 26 — Selangor has allocated RM25 million this year to invigorate the state’s agriculture sector with development and support initiatives for agropreneurs, said state executive councillor for infrastructure and agriculture Dato’ Izham Hashim.
He said the federal government, through the Agriculture and Food Security Ministry (MAFS), channels about RM30 million a year to aid Selangor agropreneurs. The funds go towards infrastructure, modern technology, seeds, livestock breeds and various development programmes to ramp up sector productivity.
“(The Selangor government) allocates about RM25 million. For the past three years, every year we have received around RM30 million from (MAFS) to distribute to entrepreneurs for development.
“When state and federal allocations are combined, nearly RM50 million to RM55 million a year is channelled directly to entrepreneurs. That’s why we can see that the development of the agriculture and farming sector in Selangor is ramping up,” he told reporters after launching the Selangor Melon Technology Centre at the Selangor Melon and Agro Green Festival here yesterday.
Izham said Selangor has pushed for the development of the entire agriculture ecosystem, from breeding and seed cultivation to production, to ensure the industry is more sustainable and to lower dependence on external sources.
He explained that this approach is practised to produce high-value commodities by ensuring quality seeds and breeds are cultivated domestically for distribution to farmers and breeders.
“If we want to develop a high-value commodity, we must look at its entire ecosystem. Starting with the seeds, if there aren’t any, we produce them ourselves. Same with breeds for livestock farming.
“After that we help (industry players) with planting before distributing (seeds and breeds) to farmers and breeders. If we keep depending on other quarters, we would keep facing problems with the supply of seeds and such,” Izham said.
