BORNEO POST (ONLINE)

Commercial farming has big potential in Serian – Dahim

June 21, 2016, Tuesday Samuel Aubrey, reporters@theborneopost.com

KUCHING: Serian Resident Dahim Nadot encouraged more farmers in the Serian Division to go into commercial farming to take advantage of Serian’s proximity to the state capital.

He said the people in Serian, particularly Bidayuh farmers who have land, should start thinking of large scale farming which can be very lucrative due to the market demand in Kuching, other parts of Sarawak and even overseas for meat, crops and other farm produce.

He pointed out there is little reason for the farmers not to go into such venture with the assistance from government agencies which can also provide technical advice to ensure the farm is successful.

“As the Resident, I want to see something big in Serian. There is assistance available, which they can get from government agencies, including getting technology know-how and technical advice.

“All they need is to think big because Serian is now a division.

“For example, go into livestock farming such as cattle, goat, and even kampung chicken which nobody has done on a big-scale. They have to take the opportunity because Serian is so near Kuching, the market is there,” he said.

Dahim mentioned these after visiting a cattle ranch owned by Sunny Kon near Serian town yesterday.

The ranch, which has been in existence for more than 10 years, now has over 100 head of cattle from the banteng species.

It is also probably the first ranch in Malaysia to breed this cattle species.

“I hope to see more people in Serian come up with this kind of project. This is high value agriculture which we want to promote in the whole of Serian,” he said.

Meanwhile, Kon said the banteng is a very good species of cattle to be bred locally and this can help the nation cut its dependency on imported beef.

“The banteng is a very good species, and we must take advantage of this. So, I hope the government will allocate a bigger area for the breeding of banteng cattle,” he said.