Aquaculture Entrepreneurs Urged To Apply For Budi Madani Diesel Subsidy

BUKIT MERTAJAM, June 1 (Bernama) -- Aquaculture entrepreneurs under the Fisheries Department have been urged to register with the GeoAgro system before applying for the MADANI Subsidy Assistance (BUDI MADANI).

Fisheries Department director-general Datuk Adnan Hussain said there are about 7,900 aquaculture entrepreneurs in the peninsula registered with the department and only 1,232 have applied for contributions under the targeted diesel subsidy implemented by the government.

“As everyone knows the government is currently implementing targeted subsidy so we want to encourage aquaculture breeders to register with GeoAgro first for us to obtain basic data.

“We have 7,900 registered aquaculture entrepreneurs in Peninsular Malaysia, therefore, we hope that this target group will be able to register immediately and if they are eligible, then the next step is to apply for BUDI MADANI to enable them to receive assistance and incentives provided by the government,” he said.

He said this to reporters after officiating the Northern Zone myAgroprenur (myAP) and myKomuniti Perikanan (myKP) Carnival 2024 here, today which was also attended by Fisheries Development Division director Khazlita Adzim Abdol Aziz.

The two-day carnival which ends tomorrow brings 18 entrepreneurs from three states namely Penang, Kedah and Perlis to help them develop and promote their products directly to the community.

On May 27, the Ministry of Finance announced, in a statement, that private diesel vehicle owners, smallholders and small-scale commodity growers, from the B40 and M40 groups in Peninsular Malaysia, are eligible to apply for government cash contributions of RM200 per month through the BUDI MADANI, starting from May 28.

Adnan said eligible private diesel vehicle owners can apply under the Individual category while farmers and smallholders can apply under the Agri-Commodity category.

In other developments, he said, the three main fisheries sub-sectors under the department will be involved in the 2024 Agricultural Census which will be carried out by the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM) for three months, from July 7 to Oct 10.

“It covers the sub-sector of capture fisheries which involves fishermen who catch fish in the sea; the aquaculture sub-sector and also the sub-sector of inland fishermen who catch fish in rivers, lakes and mines.

"Currently, we have approximately 49,000 licensed fishing boats registered nationwide, in addition to 21,000 aquaculture entrepreneurs and 14,000 inland fishermen. This group is expected to be involved in the census and we hope that full cooperation will be given by them to make this census a success,” he said.

 The media previously reported that Chief Statistician Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin estimated that 1.6 million individuals involved in the agricultural sector are involved in the 2024 Agricultural Census, including farmers, smallholders and business organisations including large companies related to agriculture.

-- BERNAMA