“Totally illogical”, “most ridiculous”, “shocking”. “Lame excuses” for bad policies.

 

Alor Setar MP Gooi Hsiao Leung certainly did not mince his words when responding to the agriculture minister who blamed the weather for the padi stockpile problem in Perlis and Kedah.

 

Agriculture and Agro-based Industries Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob was reported by Bernama yesterday as saying that “uncertain weather” had caused the farmers to plant late this season.

As a result, there is an excess stockpile of padi, and the minister had instructed Padiberas Nasional Bhd (Bernas) to buy up the stash to avoid farmers from incurring losses.

 

Gooi, in a statement today, said bad weather conditions or late planting and harvesting of padi is not the cause.

The PKR parliamentarian said the roots of the padi stockpile crisis currently faced in Perlis goes much deeper.

 

He pointed out that even during the best harvesting season, when Kedah and Perlis can together chalk up to 650,000 tonnes, millers in the two states have the capacity to process and mill 950,000 tonnes of padi each season.

 

“The minister is totally evading the real root cause of why rice millers are not buying padi,” he said.

 

“As I have previously highlighted, it is because rice millers themselves are facing difficulty disposing stockpiled rice in their mills due to the blatant abuse and corruption in the government mismanagement of the national ‘Super Tempatan ST15 percent’ rice subsidy scheme.”

 

‘Mismanaged rice subsidy programme’

 

Throughout the years, the PKR parliamentarian has been outspoken in highlighting what he says are abuse and mismanagement of the national rice subsidy programme.

 

Each year, Gooi said, the government budgets around RM2.2 billion in subsidies and incentives on the rice sector.

 

This includes price subsidy (RM480 million), fertiliser subsidy (RM465million), incentive to produce paddy (RM563million), rice price subsidy (RM528million), and padi seed subsidy (RM85million).

 

Gooi said he rang the alarm bells that excess supply in the mills this season would have “dire consequences on the entire supply chain of the rice industry”.

 

“…Farmers would be unable to sell their harvest this season or face high rejection rates for their padi sold to rice millers,” he said.

 

He added that should the rice and padi stockpile crisis persists, hundreds of millions spent on subsidies and incentives by the government will be squandered, with farmers being the biggest victims.

 

“Without any further delay and lame excuses in blaming nature, I urge the agricultural minister to immediately make a visit to Perlis and Kedah to personally meet the farmers and rice millers to listen to their grievances and offer long-term solutions to overcome the rice and padi stockpile problem, before it becomes a full-blown national food security crisis,” Gooi said.