Agriculture Department to conduct partial land survey in Sabah

KOTA KINABALU, Jan 24 -- The Agriculture Department and the Sabah Agriculture Department today signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on technical cooperation in partial land survey in Sabah for the period of five years beginning this year. 

Agriculture director-general Datuk Zahimi Hassan said the MoU was a continuation of the cooperation between the two agencies that were forged from 2010 to 2019 involving 320,000 hectares of land which had been surveyed.

He said the survey findings would then be used by the Sabah Agriculture Department in determining the suitability of land for agricultural purposes and to make the recommendations in government land applications.

“It covers several districts including Ranau, Tongod, Pitas, Nabawan, Beluran, Keningau, Sipitang, Tenom, Tuaran and Kota Belud.

“Such cooperation is important in mobilising resources and expertise for the country’s agro-food sector to attain the goal of food safety,” he said in his speech at the MoU signing ceremony at Wisma Pertanian, here, today.

Zahimi signed the MoU on behalf of the Agriculture Department while the Sabah Agriculture Department was represented by its director Dzulkifli Ghulamdin.

He said through the cooperation, officers from the Agriculture Department could also improve their knowledge in terms of the land classification system in Sabah in addition to sharing expertise between the two parties.

Meanwhile, Dzulkifli said in the 12th Malaysia Plan, the Sabah Agriculture Department planned to carry out  partial land survey on 2,000 hectares of land a year or 100,000 hectares within five years by focusing on potential areas for agricultural purposes.

He said Sabah has 2.2 million hectares of land that is suitable for agricultural activities and data on the types of land in the state were important so that it could be managed and used in a sustainable and environmentally friendly manner.

-- BERNAMA