Farmers must continue planting to ensure food security

Lower demand: Choong estimates that about 30-50% of fruits produced have to be dumped as they have gone bad during the MCO.

DESPITE the difficulty faced by farmers over the movement control order (MCO), it is important that farmers continue to plant, stresses Kuala Lumpur and Selangor Fruit Farmers Association (KLSFFA) chairman Jeffrey Choong. This is to ensure food security in the near future, says Choong: “We would like to request farmers not to stop planting, they need to continue. Otherwise, there might

be a shortage.” He predicts that if farmers do not continue to plant over the MCO, there is a possibility that there will be fewer supply of fruits in the coming three months to a year. “Some workers also do not want to work at this time as they are afraid [of Covid-19]. We have offered to pay them more but some of them are still worried, and of course I cannot force them,” he explains. “There are also fewer packing staff. We are facing this problem.”Choong adds that some farmers choose not to plant due to other issues like difficulty securing the necessary machinery, piping and irrigation hardware, or accessing fertiliser.