‘We’ll miss rice self-sufficiency goal’

Izzan Kassim and Rasidah HAB
BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN

BRUNEI will not meet its 60 per cent rice self-sufficiency target by this year, said the Minister of Industry and Primary Resources at the Legislative Council meeting yesterday.

Yang Berhormat Pehin Orang Kaya Seri Utama Dato Seri Setia Hj Yahya Begawan Mudim Dato Paduka Hj Bakar said that currently, Brunei’s rice production is far from the 60 per cent target set by the Ministry of Industry and Primary Resources (MIPR) in 2009.

The minister pointed out, however, that the domestic production of rice has increased from 1,230 metric tonnes in 2013 to 1,380 metric tonnes last year.

The ministry has looked into the issue, said the minister, adding that they have problem areas that need to be overcome to drastically improve rice production.

Listing out one of the causes of low rice production, YB Pehin Dato Hj Yahya said: “Our (rice) production infrastructure are not yet optimal.”

To overcome this, the minister said that budget has been allocated to improve the production infrastructure.

He added that it has been reported also that the number of quality padi production areas is increasing, which he hopes can raise the country’s padi production.

“The field’s capacity along with the capability of our farmers will help produce a higher yield.”

In addition, the minister also mentioned that high-yield variety padi are also needed to increase rice production. The government has identified a few, he added.

Infrastructure

He said ensuring the infrastructure to facilitate production will be a more effective way in achieving rice self-sufficiency. The minister was responding to LegCo member YB Hj Tahamid Hj Nudin’s query on how Brunei can achieve self-sufficiency in rice.

The minister said there are many challenges in realising rice self-sufficiency, especially with incomplete infrastructure.

One of the challenges is irrigation, which was raised by Temburong representative YB Hj Sulaiman Hj Ahad.

In the hasty efforts to achieve it, Brunei’s padi production bears the brunt of low yield two years ago, said the minister.

YB Pehin Dato Hj Yahya said efforts to increase padi production inadvertently increased the pressure on the fields.

The minister said the padi fields were made to plant padi three times a year instead of the usual twice a year.

“Two years ago, our production yield was indirectly affected by this because we increased the production yield by planting three times a year, and the hasty use of pesticides had resulted in the rapid occurrences of diseases which caused low production yield,” he said.

The minister acknowledged that the fields did not have sufficient resting period between planting. Leaving the fields fallow is important in ensuring soil nutrients do not get depleted and in preventing the build-up of pests and diseases.

YB Hj Sulaiman brought up the issue of lack of irrigation for the Peradayan and Selapon padi fields.

He said Peradayan and Selapon padi fields represent the largest areas of padi farming in Temburong and had worked on answering the call to produce rice for the country.

The minister said irrigation projects for the two padi fields had been proposed and will be forwarded to the Public Works Department, Ministry of Development.

“Once this irrigation project is completed, the padi fields’ irrigation will be more systematic. However, for the time being in the affected areas, we encouraged them to grow rice that requires less water which include varieties of traditional rice such as beras pusu, beras adan and beras bukit,” he said.

Other farm produce

In his reply to Yang Berhormat Pehin Orang Kaya Maharaja Kerna Dato Paduka Seri Hj Yaakub Pehin Orang Kaya Maharaja Diraja Dato Paduka Hj Zainal, the minister also said that the production of other farm produce, such as vegetables and fruits, are still not satisfactory as well.

He said that continuous efforts are carried out by the ministry to improvetheir production as well by providing assistance as well as improvements to the infrastructure at the farms.

Instead of focusing on primary products, such as farm produce, YB Pehin Dato Hj Yahya said that the Department of Agriculture and Agrifood aims to develop the products through processing.

The minister said that he hopes this can help improve the production of food products or the manufacturing of farm produce.


Sumber - The Brunei Times