Posted on October 27, 2011, Thursday
KUCHING: The government not only wants the state to be self-sufficient in rice as part of its food security strategy, but also to ensure that that specialty rice is sold at a premium to help the growers.
Ministry of Agriculture administrative officer (for special assignment) Paul Ritom told The Borneo Post that they had identified three local rice varieties that could be sold as premium products as they were comparable to foreign rice grains.
“Farmers who grow these varieties will have commercial products that can raise their incomes but the state must organise the paddy farmers professionally so that they can plant and sell them themselves,” he said when met at Sarawak Rice Conference.
Ritom explained that with the technology, the state should also encourage poor farmers to plant high quality traditional varieties, not only for local consumption but for niche overseas market too.
“The government will then have less concern that there is not enough to eat but will also be happy to see that farmers have good disposable income,” he added.
Ritom was optimistic of the viability of these projects if the government started the ball rolling for the private sector to be involved in the economic venture.
He revealed that the three varieties that were accepted in the foreign market and recognised as high value rice were ‘Bario’, ‘Bajong’ and ‘Biris’ rice.
Ritom elaborated that under the National Key Economic Areas (NKEA), the federal government had already approved 200 hectares of land in the state to be planted with ‘bario’ rice because of the good price it fetched in the local market, which was up to RM12 per kilogramme.
On ‘Bajong’ rice, he said the variety was also much sought after, for which the government must come up with plans to help the growers increase their production.
Ritom also wanted more promotion to be done for ‘Biris’ rice as it could compete with Jasmine rice from Thailand.
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