Agriculture has long been the mainstay for the people and the Sabah Barisan Nasional will continue to keep the sector a priority agenda in its administration.
The BN led government embarked on a 10-year plan from last year to 2026 through the 3rd Sabah Agricultural Policy to strengthen agricultural productivity and competitiveness, as well as ensure the long-term sustainability of the agriculture sector in the state.
This is a clear testament of the state government’s committment to develop the agriculture sector further to increase food security and improve the income of farmers, breeders and fishermen.
The agricultural sector is one of three key thrusts in the Halatuju agenda, alongside tourism and manufacturing to transform Sabah.
Over the years, a slew of programmes and policies were put in place to achieve the state’s vision of becoming a centre of excellence and trade for agricultural products.
With oil palm as the main driver of growth, the state had also moved to diversify and intensify in cultivating other high-value agricultural products.
The agriculture sector contributed about 20 per cent to the gross domestic product in 2016 as the state continues to be the largest producer of crude palm oil in our country. The export value of palm-based oleo chemicals increased substantially from RM43.2 million in 2012 to RM554.2 million in 2016.
Action plans to handle the numerous issues and challenges faced by the agriculture sector have also been implemented by improving basic infrastructure, processing centres, agriculture research, increasing the number of skilled labour and special investment incentives for large-scale businesses and bio-security.
The first state agricultural policy spanned between 1992 and 1998 while the second one, from 1999 until 2016 before embarking on the latest plan.
The policy also aims to strengthen productivity and competitiveness, as well as ensuring sustainability of food crops, fisheries and aquaculture, industrial crops and other economic crops.