THE government will not ignore the plight of farmers and fishermen, Putrajaya assures the group following criticism over the lack of incentives for them in the Budget 2019 tabled on Friday.

Minister of Agriculture and Agro-based Industry Salahuddin Ayub said the ministry is in the process of revamping the database of farmers and fishermen so that more can benefit from government incentives.

The process will be completed as soon as possible so that new incentives can be announced by next year, he said.

“It’s true that there are no specific incentives in Budget 2019 for farmers and fishermen. We are in the process of updating our database so that we know the real number of people involved.

“We are cleaning up the system to remove those who had been abusing the incentives. I am confident our incentives can be given out to the targeted groups,” he told The Malaysian Insight.

Genuine farmers and fishermen will receive incentives after the process, he said.

Based on the Finance Ministry’s website, Budget 2019 showed a decline in allocation for the ministry.

In fact, incentives such as padi fertiliser subsidy, fishermen allowance and water system maintenance were missing, unlike Budget 2018.

For the fishing industry, the ministry was allocated RM102 million last year but in Budget 2019, the amount was reduced to RM86 million.

Former prime minister Najib Razak said his administration focused more on the farming sector.

“This is way different than Barisan Nasional’s Budget 2018 where we gave RM6.5 billion to farmers, fishermen and rubber tappers, including RM2.3 billion in aid and incentives, such as fertiliser and production input for farmers, fishermen and rubber tappers,” he said in a statement yesterday.

Many farmers and fishermen expressed their disappointment that Budget 2019 did not address their problems with low yields and falling catch.

They said farmers had been hoping that the government would do something to increase palm oil prices, instead of ad hoc cash handouts. – November 5, 2018.