KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 14): The Malaysian government aims to increase wages and productivity levels within the agriculture sector by encouraging farmers to adopt technological advancements in modern farming practices, said Economy Minister Rafizi Ramli.
To achieve this, Rafizi said the Ministry of Economy has undertaken a pilot project involving idle federal lands in 16 locations across the country that were revitalised using modern agricultural technology.
"So what we did was that we took these lands and allocated them for modern farming. The federal government used federal allocation to put together the modern infrastructure, and instead of the participants putting their own money, they were employed on site in a way that it functions almost like a cooperative.
"They are given half an acre plot [of land]. They have to meet certain requirements. The government looks after the whole value chain and supply chain all the way from infrastructure to technical expertise. We make sure that the off-takers enter into a price agreement to make sure that these farmers are protected from fluctuations in prices," he said during his speech at the launch of the World Bank's Malaysia Economic Monitor report here on Monday.
"So, it's a way that we think we can combine poverty eradication and also build the infrastructure for modern farming across the country," Rafizi added.
The minister said that some of the participants were able to earn as much as RM5,600 per month, which is more than double the average farmers' salary.
With the proclaimed success of the pilot project, Rafizi said he hopes to scale up operations nationally, with the government set to allocate more land for this purpose.
"The beauty of it is that we are no longer confined to the west coast or to the more developed corridors to create these kinds of employment. This is as suitable, if not more suitable, in the less developed areas," he said, adding that he aims to reposition the east coast of Malaysia, as well as Sabah, as the "food basket of Malaysia".
"Our ambition is to revive and refocus agriculture as a growth driver for the new economy.
"And we hope that if we persist on this, we will be able to increase productivity that eventually will result in higher wages and output, and manage the other side of the whole equation, which is to minimise social division and food dependence," Rafizi said.
Digital agriculture technologies can transform Malaysia's agrofood sector
Earlier, the World Bank launched its latest Malaysia economic monitor report entitled 'Farming the Future: Harvesting Malaysia’s Agricultural Resilience through Digital Technologies'.
The report found that the Malaysian agriculture sector requires higher productivity, efficiency and resilience to support broader economic growth, and importantly, ensure the country’s food security amid both growing demand and increasing climate change impacts
As such, the World Bank called for the adoption of digital agriculture technologies (DAT) to transform Malaysia's agrofood sector by reducing production costs, increasing sales volumes and lowering mortality rates.
DATs include technologies such as Global Positioning System (GPS), drones and sensors.
The report further identified specific actions that are tailored to rural areas’ needs to ensure that the rural economy and agrofood sectors benefit from DAT.
The actions include investing in public goods that provide sufficient resources to successfully implement digital technologies, investing in the innovation ecosystem to create an environment that fosters innovation and supports the development of DATs, and creating an enabling environment by formulating clear and actionable strategies for data governance, privacy, security and an incentive framework.