$20m rice cultivation project budget pushed

Low Leng May
BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN
Wednesday, March 7, 2012

A BUDGET of $20 million has been proposed for the Rice Cultivation Project, a $5 million increase from last year's allocation, to improve national food security, the second minister of Finance at the Prime Minister's Office announced yesterday.

In yesterday's LegCo session, Yang Berhormat Pehin Orang Kaya Laila Setia Dato Seri Setia Hj Abdul Rahman Hj Ibrahim said that the Ministry of Industry and Primary Resources also has plans to intensify its efforts in ensuring food supply in the production of broiler chickens and livestock.

Speaking with The Brunei Times, Minister of Industry and Primary Resources Yang Berhormat Pehin Orang Kaya Seri Utama Dato Seri Setia Hj Yahya Begawan Mudim Dato Paduka Hj Bakar said the budget will be used mainly for rice production projects, to build up more infrastructure.

"It (budget allocation)'s good for infrastructure, (it will be) budget for buying post harvest equipment, (it) will be used more for infrastructure," he said.

This year, the farm size has been reduced from 1,355 hectares to 1,305 hectares to make space for infrastructure build-up, YB Pehin Dato Hj Yahya revealed.

"We take it off from production in order to improve the field, putting in irrigation and the roads," he said.

The rice cultivation project was success since its introduction in 2007, as recent statistics showed a two-times increase of yield of individual farmers from 1.4 metric tonnes per hectare, he revealed.

In 2007, the local rice production was only 3.12 per cent of the country's need. He added, however, that an incremental or annual increase in rice yield was noted after the introduction of the rice cultivation project.

From 2010 to 2011, rice production has increased by 30 per cent, he said. With a domestic consumption of about 30,000 metric tonnes, the rice production contributed to about four per cent of the total domestic consumption.

"After the programme, we managed to boost it up quite fast, definitely a 30 per cent increase from last year."

YB Pehin Dato Hj Yahya attributed the dramatic increase of rice production to the use of new technologies, higher variety of rice, and the upgrading of local farmers' knowledge in rice-planting.

The MIPR targets to increase the total rice yield by 60 per cent by 2015, and according to the minister, "that has to be done by infrastructure building, capacity building, and post-harvest improvement".

In matters of producing Brunei's own livestock, YB Pehin Dato Hj Yahya said the ministry is currently looking at how Brunei can domestically produce its own livestock, despite having a farm based in Australia.

He added producing livestock domestically can be made possible using the feedlot technique, a type of animal feeding operation. The feedlot will contain thousands of animals in an array of feeding pens, instead of having the animals roam in open areas, he explained.

YB Pehin Dato Hj Yahya said that the strategic returns of having a self-sufficient economy will bring more money than the amount spent on the projects to achieve self-sufficiency and economic sustainability.

"Looking at strategic returns, the returns for the goodness of the people and security of the country, the returns to the country is a lot."

Dipetik dari - The Brunei Times

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