Friday, August 22, 2008, 02.10 AM
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Friday, August 22, 2008, 02.10 AM |
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The Agriculture and Agro-based Industry Ministry secretary-general, Datuk Dr Zulkifli Idris, was quoted as saying that "the plan was for the private sector to come in. Unfortunately, they have not been doing so, probably because the agriculture sector was seen as high risk and low return".
He was also quoted as saying that "the GLCs (government-linked companies) are now showing some positive signs. They are coming into agriculture slowly yet assuredly".
Once the GLCs rev up the momentum by proving on the ground that the projects are not only economically feasible but most importantly profitable, the private sector can be expected to invest in them.
Besides primary production of agricultural produce, downstream activities to produce value-added products for niche markets should be considered, to make the venture more profitable. Rice bran -- a byproduct of rice milling -- could be attractively packaged and promoted as a health supplement.
Some of the rice produced could be prepared, packaged and sold as breakfast or baby cereal. Some of the milk produced from dairy farms could be skimmed to extract two-thirds of the milk fat content (dairy cream) for butter or ghee-making, and the partially skimmed milk could be sold as low-fat milk which fetches a higher price than full cream milk.
The feasibility of sunflower cultivation through contract farming for extracting sunflower oil could be explored. On 200 sq metres of land, a family could grow enough sunflower plants to extract 13 litres of sunflower oil.
A total of 272kg of oil could be produced from the sunflower seeds obtained from 2.5ha of sunflower plants.
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