PETALING JAYA: Agriculture and Agro-based Industry Minister Datuk Salahuddin Ayub has called on youths to get involved in the agriculture sector as it will help generate income for the country and themselves.
He said there needs to be a change in the traditional agriculture concept to ensure that it could be implemented in the city area as well.
Salahuddin said the government has provided a lot of courses and incentives to create more modern farmers.
“As of now, we have identified 30 per cent of youth are involved in the agriculture industry especially in farming and fertigation,” he said, adding that 60 per cent of senior citizens are involved in padi plantation.
Salahuddin has also pointed out that the government has created various programmes at universities to attract youth to go into agriculture.
“We have created programmes such as the ‘Agrosiswa’ to attract post-graduate students to get involved in the farming sector,” he said.
He told this to reporters after visiting Media Prima Bhd (MPB) this afternoon.
He also urged young farmers to look into value-added agriculture, giving examples such as jams or chips, which add value to agricultural commodities and can be exported.
Also present today were Media Prima Television Networks (MPTN) chief executive officer Johan Ishak, MPTN group managing editor of news and current affairs Datuk Manja Ismail, MPB News Operations, TV and Radio Network group general manager Sofwan Mahmood, and MPTN group general manager of news and current affairs Ahmad Kamaludin Zabaai.
Earlier, Salahuddin visited the news studios and was given a briefing by MPB’s senior management.