A cattle breeder at his farm in Selangor. The state’s production of protein food sources such as beef and lamb is only at 5%. — Filepic
THE Selangor government has taken various steps to ensure the sustainability and stability of its food system is in line with the National Food Security Policy Action Plan 2021-2025.
State infrastructure and public amenities, agriculture modernisation and agro-based industry committee chairman Izham Hashim said the measures were part of the ongoing Selangor Agro Transformation Plan (PeTA).
PeTA, he said, included five main policies namely high-value products, agriculture modernisation, complete supply chain, agropreneur development and agro-tourism, he said.
Izham said currently, Selangor’s domestic food supply levels were relatively low, especially for protein food sources such as beef and lamb where it was less than 5%.
“As for rice production, it is only 33%, ginger (3.8%), sawi (56.4%), chillies (9.1%) and cucumber (26.7%).
“Fresh products that reach more than 100% self-sufficiency levels are sugarcane (211.8%) and starfruit (107.7%), while poultry is at 64.73% and chicken eggs (44.91%),” he said.
PeTA’s objectives, Izham said, included productivity (increasing the amount of production and directly increasing self-sufficiency levels); economy (increasing the contribution to the value of the agricultural food sector in Selangor); and human capital (creating income opportunities, especially for youths, and providing hands-on training and guidance to interested parties).
He was replying to a question from Juwairiya Zulkifli (PH-Bukit Melawati) during the state assembly sitting in Shah Alam.
Juwairiya had asked about the actions taken by the state government to ensure sufficient food supply for the people.
On PeTA’s implementation, Izham said it would be divided into nine clusters.
The first three clusters are Caring Agro (agriculture waste management, and providing incentive assistance to farmers, breeders, fishermen and agro-based industries); Community Agro (urban agro programmes and community gardens as well as agro students and agro schools); and Agro Centre of Excellence (increasing research and implementation to produce plant seeds, livestock breeds and aquaculture as well as to reduce the cost of livestock feed).
Other clusters are the Selangor Agropreneurs (implementation of Ikon Selangor programme and registering agropreneurs); Agrotourism (creating more agro-tourism locations based on existing agricultural projects); Driving Agro Selangor (building and upgrading infrastructure related to the agricultural sector); Agro-business (creating more comprehensive collection points, and direct sales locations to consumers such as Selangor Agro Market).
Another cluster is the E-agro, an agricultural data collection centre to process information of agricultural lands owned by the state government and its subsidiaries.
The final cluster is the Smart Selangor Agro Park and Smart Selangor Agro Farm, which involved opening of more food agriculture areas based on the PeTA policy.
