BELURAN: Applications for the Ministry of Agriculture Development and Food Industry’s (MoA) Young Agropreneur programme are now open year-round with no deadline for submission.
Its Minister, Ronald Kiandee said the programme, which was launched under the Eleventh Malaysia Plan for young people between the ages of 18 and 40, among others, is aimed at helping and encouraging their involvement in the agricultural sector which covers all areas of value chain such as crops, livestock, fisheries and agro-based industries.
These include marketing, training and technical courses, support services and agricultural inputs and agro-tourism, he said.
“The ministry aims to assist about 1,200 young agropreneurs this year,” he said while appealing all young people to seize the opportunity.
“Rejuvenate the agricultural sector and develop the agro-industry to ensure national food security,” he said when speaking to media at the State Agropreneur Explore Programme on Saturday.
Also present were Director General of the Fisheries Development Authority Raja Kahalid Raja Ariffin and the ministry’s Young Agropreneur Unit Director Mohammad Ezri Shamsuddin.
The Young Agropreneur grant involved assistance in the form of goods worth up to RM20,000.
Started in 2016, some 6,005 young agropreneurs throughout Malaysia have received grants totalling RM104.35 million.
Among the application requirements are, applicants must be Malaysian, must be between the ages of 18 and 40 and able to read and count.
The programme covers agriculture, livestock, fisheries, food industry such as food and non-food processing projects in agriculture, agro-tourism and marketing sectors.
Ronald said that since the introduction of the project for Sabah, 505 young agropreneurs in agriculture, fisheries, livestock and food industries have received grants totalling RM7.23 million.
Meanwhile, the approval of the One-Year Young Agropreneur Grant in 2020 involved 238 recipients with a total of RM4.01 million disbursed nationwide.
For Sabah, nine Young Agropreneurs have been awarded a total grant of RM146,000 this year.
To encourage more young people to apply for the grant, it is open throughout the year.
However, for approval purposes, it is still subject to existing rules, conditions and scheduling which will be carried out periodically throughout the year.
Earlier, Kiandee presented the Young Agropreneur Food Aid Kit to the less fortunate in Sabah at Beluran Area Farmers Office (PPK).
The underprivileged recipients were identified by the Sabah Social Welfare Department (JKM).
The Young Agropreneur Food Assistance Kit is an initiative of the Ministry to assist young agropreneurs in Sabah in food processing business such as chips, biscuits, pastes and others that faced difficulties during the Movement Control Order (MCO).
In addition to helping the less fortunate, the initiative also serves as a platform to promote products by Sabah’s young agropreneur.
Kiandee also presented the young agropreneur grant to nine recipients represented by three recipients from Sandakan, Tuaran and Beluran.
Later, he also visited the Young Agropreneur Fisheries Project – fish pond (red Talapia and catfish) by Marzuki Abd Rahim, 33, at Kampung Sungai Nafas in Beluran.
Marzuki was the recipient of a RM20,000 Young Agropreneur Grants grant in 2019 to build fish breeding infrastructure such as pond improvement and fish feed specialty.
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