ONE way to address youth unemployment and underemployment is by reconfiguring and integrating agriculture with digitalisation and the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR).
Digitalisation and the 4IR will definitively provide the kind of employment opportunities and career pathways not seen before. A highly-skilled, dynamic and vibrant graduate and youth workforce combined with high-tech application would propel our country into a higher altitude in the 4IR atmosphere and orbit.
This is why technology in the form of digitalisation/4IR will need to be set on the right trajectory as well as fired up on all cylinders by the national strategies and policies.
It means that our existing economic policy orientation and macro-economic fundamentals have to be reshaped accordingly. To move forward, we need to return to basics, i.e., our agrarian base.
Towards that end, the National Agrofood Policy 2.0 (2021-2030) is calling for the embrace of industrialisation and smart farming – which would open up opportunities for training and employment for the youth as "digital natives".
At the same time, the government is also on the right track in coming up with a specific, targeted and comprehensive National Food Security Policy to address the need for a long-term food security strategy from all aspects on a sustainable and uninterrupted basis.
EMIR Research would like to make the following recommendations to complement and supplement the existing and soon-to-be introduced policy measures:
1. The High-Tech Facility (HTF)-National Investment Aspiration (NIA) should be directly extended to the small-and-medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in the agricultural sector.
As it is, currently the HTF-NIA is only limited to the "manufacturing and services subsectors with high NIA scores" or "SME project participants in key government programmes involved in research, development and innovation for critical technologies identified under national blueprints, from IR4.0-related technologies to green technology and biotechnology, etc.".
This can also create choice and competition in the market for financing access in the area of smart/precision farming. The Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) can play a pivotal and critical role as the key facilitator and mediator – as it has done for its e-Ladang schemes for pilot agri-tech projects in strategic collaboration with commercial banks.
2. Make it mandatory for government-linked companies (GLCs) involved in the oil palm sector to set aside a minimum of certain acres of their individual plantation holdings nationwide for farming activities, and to align this with the creation of employment opportunities and career pathways in agriculture for the youth.
The rock melon farm project in Kuala Langat (Selangor), for example, is situated next to an oil palm plantation. The career pathways can be structured in parallel fashion with the oil palm/palm oil business.
So, just like cadet planters in oil palm (and rubber) estates that are trained and groomed to be estate managers, there should be the creation of the category of cadet farmer to rise to the position of farm manager – with commensurable pay and perk. Other newly created categories would be farming technicians, faming engineers, farming executives, etc.
As for non-GLCs, tax incentives could be provided such as reduction in corporate tax and listing fees (on Bursa Malaysia) which could also apply to the GLCs. This would complement and supplement the other "wing", i.e., the existing Young Agropreneur programme – from the 11th Malaysia Plan onwards and now – under the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industries (Mafi).
According to Mafi Deputy Minister II, Datuk Che Abdullah Mat Nawi, the programme provides fundamental skills as well as non-monetary grants in the form of machinery, seeds, animal breeds, fertilisers, pesticides, etc. for youths aged from 18 to 40 years old who are interested in making a career in agriculture.
The programme encompassed cultivation, livestock, fisheries, food industries, agro-tourism and marketing. Last year, 6,908 young agropreneurs nationwide received grants totalling RM121.97 million.
3. Mafi should collaborate with the Higher Education Ministry as well as other stakeholders (public and private), including the technical and vocational training and education (TVET) to offer programmes/courses in agricultural industrialisation and digitalisation. They can be catalyst towards the creation of new jobs market in agriculture.
Industrialisation and digitalisation can be a pathway for our youth to venture into agriculture as part of a new generation of digital and highly-skilled workforce.
The writer is head of Social, Law & Human Rights at EMIR Research, an independent think tank focussed on strategic policy recommendations based on rigorous research