SERDANG: Agrobank will be allocating RM50 million under the PEMULIH New Biz Finance Programme that enables an individual including graduates to start food based micro business at home , purchase machine for food business or purchase a motorcycle to deliver food via e-hailing platform.
Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob said, the government had agreed to allocate such amount to Agrobank that will finance RM5, 000 for the first stage and RM10, 000 for the second stage.
Ismail added, under this programme an applicant will be given a moratorium for the first six months and will be charged 3 per cent on the profit in the seventh month for the maximum financing period of 60 months or five years.
“As part of the steps to enhance the national food security system, the government via Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industry (MAFI) will introduce the Agro-food Takaful Insurance involving the whole of agro-food sector.
“For a start, the padi sub-sector and rice will be selected as the Ministry’s apprentice project that will benefit 189,500 padi planters before it is extended by stages to other sectors such as fishing, planting and food sub-sector industry,” Ismail said.
The scheme is aimed at reducing the financial implication as a result of loss of food production following natural disaster such as flood, drought and epidemic.
“The padi planters will be ensured to receive compensation that is justifiable if there is a disturbance in the national padi productivity as a result of natural disaster or epidemic,” Ismail said.
Ismail said that in his speech at the Agriculture Exhibition, Horticulture and Agro-tourism Malaysia (MAHA 2022) held at the Malaysian Agro Exposition Park, Serdang with the theme “Food Security for the Future” organised by MAFI.
The Prime Minister added, the theme is very timely with the government’s aspiration to strengthen the national food security while facing various challenges besides leading the agro-food recovery sector and assisting agriculture entrepreneurs to generate income.
The Prime Minister also emphasized the government via the formation of the Technical Committee Addressing National Food Security Supply and the Jihad Against Inflation Special Committee will ensure the national food security is attended to consistently.
“Besides those, 28 sessions of signing Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) involving investments worth RM5.6 billion will take place soon. This does not include business matching session involving eight marketing companies from abroad as one of the efforts to bring the local agro-food production to the international markets.
“About 15,000 career opportunities have been provided for the youths and graduates searching for jobs through the Job Guarantee Programme under the Agro Job Fair segment,” Ismail said.
Meanwhile MAHA had been organised with its own historical legacies since 1999 aimed at enabling the agriculture sector to move forward progressively.
For this edition, MAHA has been organized when the National Agro-Food Policy (DAN) 2.0 is at its starting point to guarantee the food security through national food transformation system and moving this sector forward for the nation until 2030. –Malaysia World News
