SHAH ALAM - The National Farmers' Association (Nafas) hopes to continuously gain the trust of the government to be involved in the manufacturing and supply of subsidised fertiliser to the rice farmers in this country in the presentation of Budget 2024, which will be presented on Oct 13.
Its General Manager Muhammad Faris Arriffin said in addition to owning a fertiliser processing plant in Gurun, Kedah with a production capacity of 360,000 tonnes per year, Nafas also had a strategic plan to deal with the issue of delayed supply of subsidised fertiliser which was given serious attention by the government before.
He said the delivery period of fertiliser to the Regional Farmers' Association (PPK) had been addressed by implementing the "Zero Late Delivery" initiative, a proactive step towards transforming the movement so that available fertiliser stocks were immediately sent to the PPK.
"To ensure food security in the aspect of subsidised fertiliser manufacturing and supply takes place holistically, we hope Nafas continues to be trusted as a 'solution partner' to the government in this important agenda.
"With more than 40 years of experience in manufacturing and supplying subsidised fertiliser to rice farmers, we hope to continue to play a role in increasing rice production capacity through the supply of quality agricultural input aid, sufficient and up to the rice planting schedule by rice farmers," he said in a statement on Wednesday.
Nafas, Faris said, also hoped to get additional allocations for Poison Subsidy Assistance to rice farmers from RM200 per hectare to RM500 per hectare which involved the estimated value of additional allocations from RM120 million to RM300 million in the Budget 2024 that would be presented next week.
The addition of the provision, he said, was expected to benefit rice farmers in reducing the cost of purchasing poisons in the foreign market at a higher price, increasing the quantity and choice of other poisons compared to the current options as well as reducing the purchase of artificial poisons or those that without the approval of the Malaysian Poisons Board.
"This additional allocation is in line with Nafas planning through the network of Farmers' Organisations under the supervision of the Board of Farmers' Organisations (LPP) and related agencies to be directly involved in the production process and the supply of high-quality, sufficient and timely Legal Rice Seeds to rice farmers," he said.
In addition, he also expected an additional allocation from RM20 million to RM55 million for the liming area of around 18,000 hectares to 50,000 hectares.
The additional area of liming, he said, could shorten the liming cycle from 16 years to 8 years (in stages) so that the area was always in an optimal pH.
Faris said Nafas also hoped for additional allocations for the provision of infrastructure involving external crop areas that experienced irrigation and drainage issues and to upgrade the existing infrastructure for the paddy plantation area.
In addition, he also hoped that the government would implement incentives or income tax exemptions on capital expenditure to expand and empower the adoption of appropriate machinery to reduce the issue of spilt rice as well as the use of various modern technology applications and digital transformation in the agricultural sector.