GOPENG: The Federation of Vegetable Farmers' Associations has urged the government to simplify the process of getting diesel subsidy for farming operations.
Federation secretary Tan Chee Kiong said a lot of farmers are not applying for the Budi Agri-Komoditi subsidy because it was a troublesome and time-consuming process.
"After applying (for the subsidy), the Agriculture Department will send their officers to the farms to verify our machinery, and it is a time-consuming process.
"The verification work is also strict, maybe it would take a year and still cannot be completed, so many do not bother," he claimed.
Tan said he hoped the government could just allow farmers to get the subsidy by simply showing their myGAP (Malaysian Good Agricultural Practices) certificates.
"From the myGAP certificate, we can know how much crops a farmer can plant or how much diesel and petrol are needed," he said in a press conference here on Thursday (March 12).
"For example, I have 8ha of farm land, they could roughly estimate how much fuel I need for my daily operations.
"So from there, the government can get the data and then give us the incentive for the petrol and diesel," he added.
The Finance Ministry had on Wednesday (March 11) announced a hike in petrol and diesel prices in Peninsular Malaysia for the week of March 12 to 18.
Diesel will be priced at RM3.92 per litre while unsubsidised RON 95 will be at RM3.27 per litre.
Subsidised diesel price for the public land transport and goods transport sectors in Peninsular Malaysia is maintained at RM1.88 and RM2.15 per litre, respectively.
The interim cash assistance for eligible diesel vehicle users under Budi Diesel Individu and Budi Diesel Agri-Komoditi would be increased to RM300 from RM200.
Tan said the increase in fuel prices will impact farmers' operating costs.
He said diesel and petrol are quite important for agriculture because these are used to run water pump, generator sets, excavators and mini soil tillers.
"So if the price of fuel is increased but the price of vegetables cannot be increased, it will add to our costs to produce vegetables.
"We hope the government will re-evaluate the fuel price policy for the agricultural sector and study a more appropriate mechanism to help reduce the pressure of production costs borne by farmers," he added.
