PONTIAN – Efforts to attract more young agropreneurs will serve to empower the national pineapple industry, which has categorised as a new source of wealth for the country.
Malaysian Pineapple Industry Board (MPIB) deputy director-general Mohd Khairuzamri M. Salleh said the mission to double pineapple production would be achievable with the involvement of more young talent, not only to meet the demand from overseas but also in the domestic market.
He said various efforts had been implemented and would continue to be drafted by the MPIB Young Agropreneur unit, such as providing grants under the MPIB Young Agropreneur Programme, as well as making the pineapple cultivation sector more modern, dynamic, and progressive.
The Youth Agropreneur Grant from the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industries (MAFI) is given to young agropreneurs aged 18 to 40 who are involved in pineapple cultivation in the form of agricultural input and plantation equipment.
Grants of RM4.489 million had been allocated since 2018, comprising RM1.42 million in 2018, RM1.01 million in 2019 and RM2.05 million in 2020, he said.
Khairuzamri said to-date, a total of 234 young pineapple agropreneurs nationwide were successfully produced involving 202 participants in the plantation sector and 32 participants in the agro-based industry.
“With the advancement in technology which is becoming sophisticated and with the Fourth Industrial Revolution which can be applied in agriculture specifically in pineapple cultivation, MPIB hopes more young people will come forward with fresh ideas to develop this industry.
“Some 60% of the existing entrepreneurs are around 60 years old wherein among them acceptance of technology is difficult as most practices in pineapple cultivation are still conventional with the use of labourers.
“Hence, we want to change this with the involvement of more youths to chart the modernisation in the pineapple industry itself,” he said.
Khairuzamri said this to Bernama after a walkabout session at the young agropreneur pineapple cultivation at a pineapple plantation in Parit Sikom, here, recently. Also present were Deputy Agriculture and Food Industries Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Hamzah and Pontian Member of Parliament Datuk Seri Ahmad Maslan.
Khairuzamri said the marketing method in the new normal must be enhanced through social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram.
“In the latest development, MPIB is collaborating with renowned e-commerce platform Shopee Malaysia in a bid to expand the pineapple entrepreneurs’ products online where we will gather all pineapple entrepreneurs under one platform and this is expected to be launched in early 2021," he said.
Besides that, he said, MPIB would encourage the expansion of pineapple farming via integration which would provide opportunities and benefits to entrepreneurs and smallholders in diversifying production in one area.
“At present, we encourage pineapple farming through integration, for example, if there is extra land on their goat farm or chilli farm or whatever, we encourage them to plant pineapple so they don’t depend on just one commodity… while waiting for the pineapple production, they already get chillies… we can do this because we have the expertise in this,” he added.
In facing the Covid-19 pandemic situation which had adversely impacted the pineapple sector in terms of production and exports, the government had provided incentives to MPIB through stimulus packages totalling RM13.6 million (2020-2021), out of which 56% had been utilised while the remaining allocation will be implemented next year.
“I, myself, am urging the public especially the youth community to venture into this sector as under the 11th Malaysia Plan, more than 90% of the pineapple entrepreneurs in the B40 group had exited the category.
“The pineapple plantation acreage spanning 16,000ha is still not sufficient to meet the demand from overseas especially for MD2 pineapple variety which is highly demanded particularly from China.
“Johor is the biggest pineapple-producing state commanding 54% of 16,000ha of planted areas, followed by Sarawak at almost 18%,” he said, adding that the export value of pineapple amounted to RM491 million last year. – Bernama, December 26, 2020
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