RANAU: Rising vegetable prices in Sabah are due to many factors such as supply and demand, shortage of workers as well as unpredictable weather, and not solely due to the rising price of fertilisers.
Kundasang farmer and entrepreneur Shahrizal Denci, 40, said the escalated price of vegetables in Sabah went beyond just the price of fertiliser.
Yesterday, Parti Warisan vice president Datuk Junz Wong said the price of normal fertiliser had increased by 100 per cent from RM98 per 50kg to RM180.
He had questioned how the prices of vegetables and fruits had not increased when the costs of planting had also gone up.
"It is multifactorial. The fluctuation of the price is affected by the supply and demand.
"The supply chain is big from farmers to middlemen and retailers, this should be controlled.
"The same goes to the price of fertilisers, it is definitely going up when we buy imported items because our ringgit has weakened (against the US dollar)," Shahrizal told the New Straits Times.
Shahrizal, who has been farming at the Kundasang highlands since 2011, added that the shortage of foreign workers who were mostly from Indonesia, had compounded the vegetable shortage.
The unpredictable weather was also contributing to the low productivity of the crops to supply the growing demand from households, retail, restaurants and exports.
When asked about feasible solutions, Shahrizal said policymakers should consider encouraging industry players to venture into processing fertiliser, such as organic fertiliser.
"Organic fertiliser is as good as commercial fertiliser as it is more sustainable and (environmentally friendly).
"However, we have to tend to our farms, and do not have time to make our own fertiliser. We need third parties or other players to get into the downstream of making it," he said.
As a farmer who applies all techniques such as conventional, hydroponics, fertigation and dutch bucket system for his crops, Shahrizal said modern techniques would be cost effective in the long run.
By applying these techniques, farmers could minimise the costs of fertilisers, manpower shortages and mitigate the bad weather factor.
However, he cautioned that modern farming techniques would require incentives and guidelines from the government to assist small-scale farmers to start and sustain it.
"For example, having a greenhouse and other systems require capital which some farmers in Kundasang cannot even afford.
"Not only that, to move into the modern farming system, the government has to ensure that basic infrastructure is addressed," he said, adding there were farmers who still relied on generators for electricity and hill water for irrigation.