KOTA KINABALU – Entrepreneur Development and Cooperatives Minister Datuk Ewon Benedick hopes that more cooperatives in the country will venture into chicken farming activities to further increase the chicken production capacity nationally.
He said a total of 21 cooperatives registered under the Co-operative Societies Commission are involved in chicken farming activities with a total income of RM57.46 million per year.
“For the existing cooperatives involved in this field, I hope they can take full advantage of the assistance provided by the ministry through the Co-operative Societies Commission to further expand their business.
“Various assistance is provided to empower cooperatives in chicken farming activities, including funding of up to RM3 million through the Agrofood Fund and Development Assistance of up to RM300,000 to strengthen the infrastructure of chicken farming activities.
“This is one of the initiatives provided by Co-operative Societies Commission for the empowerment of cooperatives in this sector," he said after the ministry’s liaison session with poultry cooperatives, in conjunction with the Co-operative Societies Commission’s official visit and briefing at Menara Suruhanjaya Koperasi Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur, today.
Also present were the Entrepreneur Development and Cooperatives deputy minister Saraswathy Kandasami, the ministry’s secretary-general Datuk Seri Suriani Ahmad and the ministry’s deputy secretary-general (development), Datuk Zamri Salleh.
The briefing was delivered by the Co-operative Societies Commission's executive chairman Rusli Jaafar.
Ewon was also briefed on the Co-operative Societies Commission (Amendment) Bill 2022 and the Implementation of the People's Cooperative 2.0 Malaysia Bhd.
Meanwhile, the Co-operative Societies Commission’s newly appointed deputy executive chairman, Datuk Umar Sarim Saidin, when delivering a briefing on Poultry Cooperatives, said 21 cooperatives are in Kedah, Penang, Perak, Selangor, Federal Territories, Melaka, Johor, Pahang, Terengganu and Kelantan.
“Most cooperatives involved in chicken farming are contract farming with party integrators (the majority being with Ayamas),” he said.
Umar said, in terms of chicken production capacity by cooperatives, a total of 5.2 million chickens were produced per year, compared to 2.5 million chickens a day for domestic needs.
He also said that among issues and challenges faced by cooperatives in this enterprise are the price increase in seeds and inputs, the manipulation of integrators in contracts and transactions, the difficulty in obtaining quality seeds, and the impact of high death and disability. – The Vibes, January 12, 2023
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