KOTA KINABALU: Sabah's rice production level needs improvement as the state is highly dependent on imports.
Agriculture and Food Industries Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ronald Kiandee (pic) said the national rice self-sufficiency level (SSL) is at 70%, but in Sabah it is only at 22%.
"So as mentioned before, there are efforts driven by the Federal and state governments to improve this, including the Integrated Agriculture Development Area (IADA) initiative in Kota Belud announced previously, where a large-scale padi planting project is slated," he said, referring to the district formerly known as Sabah's rice bowl.
"We even asked the state Agriculture Department to study and identify new padi varieties with a better yield," he said when launching a promotional event for the Malaysia Agriculture, Horticulture and Agrotourism (Maha) 2022 expo in Gaya Street here on Sunday (July 24).
Meanwhile, he said Sabah is the last promotional leg for Maha 2022, which will take place in Serdang from Aug 4 to 14 with a target of 100,000 visitors a day.
He said based on projections and publicity, the event could potentially rake in over RM250mil in sales transactions including business matching.