CONSIDERING all the allocations made in Budget 2021 towards the country’s agriculture sector, experts argue that the Budget does not address the long-standing challenges that the sector’s been facing.
SMC Malaysia co-founder Mahaletchumy Arujanan said that the Budget stops short of putting in place a robust extension service.
“All the initiatives for agriculture are good, but we will only reap the benefits if we deploy agricultural extension officers to train our farmers in organic farming, deep irrigation and other techniques,” she opined.
“Otherwise, many of these initiatives might be abandoned or not implemented as planned,” Mahaletchumy added.
She also pointed out that currently, there are no seed companies in Malaysia or strong research and development (R&D) programmes to develop seeds for farmers.
“Farmers often have to figure out for themselves on ways to get quality seeds. Besides that, the government should also reduce tariffs for imported raw materials used in agri and food production under the Budget 2021,” she said.
Meanwhile, University Putra Malaysia (UPM) food security expert Associate Professor Shaufique Fahmi Ahmad Sidique lauded the government’s effort to encourage community farming by expanding Program Kebun Komuniti.
“Community farming is definitely the way forward for our country, especially to reduce the ecological footprint,” he said.
Bringing back crowdfarming
The concept of crowdfarming could also considered as a method for struggling farmers to gain some extra income in these hard times, allowing them to invest in their livestock or crops online.
When discussing investments, agriculture rarely comes in the picture. But crowdfunding changes that.
For example, you may purchase a cow through an online platform and finance its upkeep. When the cow matures, you can choose to cash out by selling it in the market or use the proceeds to invest further.
However, one of the questions that was often asked when the concept was first introduced, was whether crowdfarming is a profitable venture since it is relatively new and investor success stories are hard to come by.
With the e-commerce sector rapidly booming as the pandemic drags on and the world continues to become more digitally connected, it’s easy to imagine the possibility of crowdfarming trending on local shores soon. – Nov 25, 2020
