MODERN agriculture is a booming sector, said former finance minister Daim Zainuddin, calling on Malaysians to jump on the bandwagon.

Daim, who advises the Pakatan Harapan government on an ad hoc basis, urged the people to join the administration’s efforts to spur the new industry.

PH has made boosting farming a priority to slash the country’s food and livestock feed import bill, estimated to average RM50 billion a year.

The nation’s reliance on food imports has been blamed for the steep price of produce due to the ringgit’s high exchange rate to the US dollar.

The administration, said Daim, has channelled a lot of research and effort into bolstering the industry, especially by adopting technology to improve crop yields and reduce manual labour.

“This is the future, because the population is not decreasing and land is not expanding. We have to produce more food. So far, we have not taken advantage of this,” said the former Council of Eminent Persons chairman.

“I ask all Malaysians to think about this seriously, especially unemployed graduates. Let’s do agriculture,” he said, adding that some state governments have already started setting aside land for such ventures.

The business tycoon made a special plea to young working adults not to think of the sector as backward and low-tech, saying agricultural powerhouses, such as China, Japan and Taiwan, make extensive use of technology in farming.

“Farms in China use 5G networks to make planting more precise,” said Daim, referring to the regional superpower from which Malaysia imports large quantities of vegetables annually.

The move to modernise agriculture will also resolve the issue of oil palm and rubber smallholders’ drop in income due to the commodities’ plunging prices in the world market, he said.

Putrajaya is already helping Felda settlers plant food crops, such as banana and pineapple, to supplement their income.

“Also, we are reducing our food import bill, which today stands at about RM50 billion for both food and animal feed. Even if we reduce it by half, it is still a lot of money. With modern agriculture, we don’t need many foreigners,” added Daim.

By decreasing the number of foreign workers, he said, the cost of treating them at government hospitals will come down, and the money saved can be injected into the economy.

“I see tremendous potential in this industry. After all, no one ever lost money selling food.” – May 10, 2019.