Chong urges S’wak govt to help pig farmers affected by ASF

Chong Chieng Jen

KUCHING (Aug 20): The Sarawak government should step up its effort and increase the funding meant to assist the pig farmers affected by the African Swine Fever (ASF) disease, said Chong Chieng Jen.

In this respect, the Democratic Action Party (DAP) Sarawak chairman called upon the state government to be more proactive with regard to assisting the affected pig farmers, and not give mere ‘token assistance’.

Chong noted that the Minister of Modernisation of Agriculture and Regional Development Dato Sri Dr Stephen Rundi Utom, in a statement on Thursday, said the state government had sometime in July this year approved a fund of RM497,000 meant to assist the pig farmers affected by the ASF in 2021.

“This assistance fund allocation of RM497,000 is far too little, and too slow. The first case of ASF was reported in July 2021.

“According to Dr Rundi’s report, it was only in July 2022 that the state government approved the allocation to assist the pig farmers. That’s a year after the outbreak of the ASF,” said Chong in a statement yesterday.

Also quoting Dr Rundi, Chong said as at Aug 16, a total of 32,204 pigs had been culled because of the ASF.

“Taking an average cost of RM800 per pig culled, that’s a total loss of RM25 million incurred by the pig farmers.

“Yet, the state government has only allocated a sum of RM497,000 to assist them, not even two per cent of their total losses,” Chong pointed out.

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