By Olivia Miwil - December 20, 2021 @ 6:18pm
KOTA KINABALU: Sabah will have an amnesty programme next year to address the decades-long problem with fishing vessel licences.
Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Seri Dr Jeffrey Kitingan said there were currently more than 11,000 fishing vessel licences still active in Sabah.
"However, many of these licensees do not adhere to the conditions of their licences. This has been an ongoing problem for more than three decades, and something needs to be done about it.
"However, we will not punish licensees without offering them the opportunity to keep their licences, robbing them of their source of income," he said after attending a briefing held by the Fisheries Department here.
Jeffrey, who is also the state Agriculture and Fisheries Minister, said therefore his ministry will carry out an amnesty programme to allow offenders to resolve their problems if they want to keep their licences.
He said the programme will focus on nine different types of offences.
The first is to identify and address issues with licensees who own fishing vessel licences but do not own fishing vessels.
He said many licence holders only renew their licences solely for financial benefits or other undisclosed reasons.
The second category is vessels that have changed sizes after a licence was issued.
"The problem with this category is the non-standardisation of vessel sizes. Some licensees would upsize their vessels and then claim they were still adhering to their licence terms and conditions.
"We need to clearly specify the size under each licence category.
"Other issues include licences being issued while vessels are still being built, vessels being built in violation of the terms and conditions of the licences, vessels being utilised before licences are issued, and so on."
Meanwhile, Jeffrey said his ministry through the Agriculture Department will work with the Malaysian Nuclear Agency (MNA) to introduce the novel padi variety NMR152 in Sabah with the trial project to be done in his constituency in Tambunan.
"This is a high-yield variety that can produce 10 metric tonnes of rice per hectare, compared to only two to three tonnes with normal seeds. It is also resistant to a variety of diseases including tungro which is prevalent in Sabah," he said.
He added under this collaboration, MNA will provide the seeds and the bio-fertiliser and pesticide needed as well as undertake soil profiling to assure optimum growth.
"This project has the potential to assist us to address our low self-sustainability level (SSL) problem, and as a bonus, it requires less pesticide and employs environmentally-friendly fertiliser.
"We need to make sure that our farming is moving more and more towards organic farming."
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