He said while the present crisis could be attributed to geopolitical conflicts like the Ukraine-Russia war, such events should never impact Malaysia which has been blessed with an abundance of land to be developed for agricultural purposes.

“Once you become a food producer, you no longer have to depend on imported food supplies. That way, we won’t be affected by the rising prices of food caused by global conflicts,” he told reporters after officiating the Sarawak Agrofest 2022 here today.

However, Abang Johari said the nation’s agricultural sector can develop further only if it adopts the latest technologies, such as the Internet-of-Things (IoT).

“We can’t use the conventional approach in agriculture any more. If people continue seeing farmers as poor folks who work the land using hoes, it will not help attract people to join the sector.

“If we look at other countries like Thailand, China and Taiwan, they are utilising the latest technologies. We need to do the same as well.”

He also said exports would strengthen the ringgit, which would also stop rising food prices.

Abang Johari said Sarawak is committed to becoming a net exporter of high-quality agricultural products to fulfil the needs of both domestic and international markets by 2030.

In order to achieve that target, he said Sarawak was limiting the usage of land for planting oil palm trees and switching to the food industry.