Earlier, Deputy Chief Minister Tan Sri Dr George Chan Hong Nam, who is also State Agriculture Modernisation Minister and State Industrial Development Minister, said he knows of the Sarawak farmers’ woes.
“They have been hit hard, especially the small- and medium-scale farmers. The cost of animal-feed, fertiliser and transportation has increased tremendously.
“Operational costs have gone up by more than 50%. Many find it hard to sustain operations.
“Transportation costs accounts for a large part of their operating expenditure.
“Since the fuel-price rise, farmers have been spending more to sell their products,” he stressed.
Later, he said, “We ask them to be commercially viable. (But) they said tak perlu, cukup makan (no need, enough to eat).”
Earlier he said, “We (the state) want to discuss with the Federal Government on what urgent measures can be taken to help those in the agriculture sector.
“The immediate measure needed is increasing fertiliser subsidies.
“We will try to increase the use of machinery to reduce labour costs.”
Later he said, ". . . farmers should opt for organic fertilisers to beat soaring prices of ordinary fertilisers.
“There are a lot of such wastes we can use for smaller farms. It is less expensive to use organic fertiliser which is good for the soil.”
Mr. Minister, when you don't have the facts, better to say nothing, else you look real stupid.
Did you do a proper research to understand why farmers are not commercially viable? Where did you get the idea that organic fertilizer is less expensive? You must have been sleeping on the job all these years!
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