Contract farmers roped in to increase supply of sweet pumpkins

Zainal Abidin (second from left) at a stall at the agrobazaar selling sweet pumpkins. — Bernama

KUALA TERENGGANU: The Federal Agricultural Marketing Authority (Fama) will reschedule the planting of sweet pumpkins to overcome the problem of shortage of supply, which often occurs during the monsoon season.

Fama deputy director-general (Operations) Zainal Abidin Yang Razalli said currently the biggest producers were Terengganu and Kelantan but that supplies decreased when the monsoon season inundated the two states.‘’Fama requires 300 tonnes of pumpkins every month but the output from Terengganu and Kelantan can only meet 30% of the demand.