Agricultural coops urged to expand to safeguard country’s food security

JOHOR BARU: Cooperatives in the agriculture sector are encouraged to further expand their businesses as part of an effort to safeguard the country’s food security.

Cooperative Commission of Malaysia (SKM) deputy executive chairman Amran Abd Kadir said that the government had provided ample allocations and funding to assist cooperatives in expanding further.

“We encourage cooperatives in the agriculture sector to get involved in the production of rice and other food to support efforts in increasing the country’s food supply.

“Cooperatives that are in other sectors are encouraged to look into agriculture while those already in the sector could consider expanding it.

“If possible, we want cooperatives to be the main contributor to the production of food in Malaysia,” he said this in a press conference after the Johor Cooperatives Award ceremony here on Thursday (Oct 19).

Also present was state youth, sports, entrepreneur development, cooperatives and human resources committee chairman Mohd Hairi Mad Shah.

Amran said that the RM100mil financing fund for cooperatives that was announced by the government under Budget 2024 also showed that they could see the importance of cooperatives in bringing the country forward.

“In Budget 2023, the government has provided RM100mil financing funds to cooperatives that are in the agriculture sector.

“In the recently announced Budget 2024, a similar fund was also provided for cooperatives in all sectors.

“This shows that the government can see the importance of cooperatives in developing the country’s economy and as a measure to manage the rising cost of living.

“I hope that cooperatives will make good use of these opportunities and for those interested in setting up cooperatives to do so,” he said.

Meanwhile, Mohd Hairi said that the state government will continue to assist cooperatives in growing their businesses.

“The state government has approved an allocation of RM6.6mil between 2016 and 2023 for various initiatives in support of cooperatives in Johor.

“This includes the RM1.5mil Bantuan Prihatin Koperasi to assist cooperatives recover from the Covid-19 pandemic in 2022.

“This year, the state government has also approved a RM1.8mil allocation to cooperative movements in Johor,” he said.

He said that there were 1,462 cooperatives in Johor with some 463,067 members.