Sarawak Faces Lack Of Interest In Rice Growing

KUCHING, April 24 (Bernama) -- Several factors have been identified as reasons why the younger generation in Sarawak are not interested in becoming paddy farmers, among them outdated labour-intensive methods, Bernas Chief Operations Officer Mohd Kamaluddin Mohd Effendie said. He said the state's geographical factor, with many rivers and scattered paddy fields, also made it difficult to utilise machines and deploy planting and harvesting technology like those in the peninsula. "Most farmers in Sarawak use traditional methods to plant padi which is why we want to try clustered paddy planting using modern technology," he told reporters here on Saturday. Mohd Kamaluddin said Sarawak was lagging when compared to Peninsular Malaysia in terms of paddy production and could only cater to 30 per cent of the demand while the remaining supply had to be imported from Vietnam and Thailand. He said Bernas welcomed the government's effort to turn Sarawak and Sabah as the country's new rice bowls and hoped that the move would result in an increase in production from 30 per cent to 60 per cent. He added that Bernas was ready to set up a Bernas Rice Mill complex in Sarawak should the state reach the required level of production.