Deputy Premier Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah (right) presenting a memento to Singapore High Commissioner to Malaysia Vanu Gopala Menon during the courtesy call in Kuching on Monday (March 4).
KUCHING: Sarawak is looking into the use of new technology to improve rice production in the state, says Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas.
The Deputy Premier said Sarawak was focusing on producing more rice to meet the state Food Industry, Commodity and Regional Development Ministry's target of 60% self-sufficiency in rice production by 2030.
"We look forward to using technological solutions like drones for spraying fertiliser and pesticide as well as general monitoring.
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"There is also a need to use high-yielding hybrid seeds and mechanical harvesters," he said in a statement on Tuesday (March 5).
Uggah added that when farmers could harvest more rice, their income would also increase.
He said although Sarawak had been declared a high-income state by the World Bank last year, there were still people with low income.
"So helping them increase their income is also very important to the government," he said.
Uggah, who received a courtesy call from Singapore High Commissioner to Malaysia Vanu Gopala Menon on Monday (March 4), also said Sarawak could learn vertical farming from the republic.
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He said this innovation made use of modern technology, which would make it trendy and attractive to the new breed of young farmers in urban areas.
"We want to encourage more young people to take up modern agriculture as a profession so that we can increase our production of food and food products," he said.
