Sabah Deputy Chief Minister Yahya Hussin has urged government departments and agencies involved in the agriculture sector to be more responsive towards the Economic Transformation Programme.

He said the officers and staff must go into the heart of the programme and really understand its core, which included the National Key Economic Areas.

"Admittedly, the situation will become more challenging especially in the face of very limited financial resources.

"But rather than lament over this, you should stretch your capability by being more creative and innovative," he said at the Rural Development Corporation Annual Dinner here last night.

Yahya who is state agriculture and food industry minister, said it was imperative for the sector to undergo major and dramatic transformation in order to be able to contribute to a high-income economy.

He also stressed on good management, saying, a marvellous idea or project alone was meaningless without it.

At the function, a Tawau FFB project received the Excellent Project (Commercial) 2010 Award while a mushroom cultivation project in Moyog and a broiler project in Klias received the Excellent Project (Contract Farming) 2010 Award.

The recipient of the Excellent Project Participant 2010 Award was Ibrahim Othman.

- Bernama