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| Agriculture The agriculture sector in Sabah will focus on increasing overall food selfsufficiency, planting high-value crops for export and assisting in poverty eradication. Programmes to be launched will increase participation from rural communities and agropreneurs in the global supply chain, where productivity is driven via better agronomy practices, application of ICT and biotechnology, and state-sponsored R&D. Organised planting presently occurs only for key industrial crops such as oil palm, rubber and cocoa while other agricultural activities remain largely fragmented. Therefore, the immediate imperative is to enhance the scale and productivity of other crops, namely commercial and food crops. Promoted agriculture sub-sectors include aquaculture, deep sea fishing, livestock and horticulture. Collection centres with professional management will be formed to enable the distribution and flow of agricultural produce to end customers and processing centres. Anchor projects include Sabah Agro-Industrial Precinct (SAIP), National Marine Aquaculture Centre, Keningau Integrated Livestock Centre, Seafood Terminal, Permanent Food Production Parks, and upgrading of fish landing sites. Palm oil will remain as the key commercial crop for Sabah and sustainable practices will be further encouraged and enforcement strengthened, while research and development is intensified to enhance its yield, efficiency and marketability. The Palm Biotech R&D Centre is to be based at the Sandakan Education Hub. New industrial crops such as jatropha will be promoted. The current balance of trade for food in Sabah in 2005 is a deficit of RM955 million. Thus within the SDC, emphasis will be placed on food production, especially crops suitable for local conditions, to reduce the reliance of Sabah on foreign food import.
The targets for the agriculture sector by 2025 are to: • Multiply GDP contribution by 4.1 times from RM4.1 billion to RM17 billion • Increase total value of exports from RM9.1 billion to RM60 billion • Reduce negative balance of trade of food by 60% from RM955 million to RM353 million |
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