Pensiangan village girl finishes top 10, wins RM20k grant in Pitchborneo competition.

By Olivia Miwil - October 22, 2023 @ 10:15am

Sainah Asok, 20, from a far-flung village in Pensiangan secured top 10 and given a grant of RM20,000 for her "Taro powder" idea pitched during the recent 2023 pitchborneo: Food Security Innovation edition here. - Pic courtesy of Zazila Roslan.

PENSIANGAN: Sainah Asok's family's decision to embark on a two-hour boat journey to attend online mentoring sessions in town here has paid off with a RM20,000 grant from the government.

The 20-year-old, along with her parents, spent two nights at a local community hall to participate in virtual entrepreneurship sessions organised by Pitchborneo, the organisers of the 2023 Pitchborneo: Food Security Innovation pitch competition.

Supported by the Sabah Science, Technology, and Innovation Ministry, the event required new and experienced people to attend mentoring sessions on entrepreneurship and eventually participants had to pitch their business ideas.

"After learning about the programme from a teacher, Jimmy Awaong, despite my village having no access to electricity or the internet, I was still keen to take part in the Pitchborneo competition to market our agricultural products.

"In the remote areas around Pensiangan, many villagers, including us, cultivate products such as taro, coffee, ginger and more.

"Unfortunately, these products are mainly for personal consumption, as we cannot transport them to urban areas due to high transportation costs and the long distance from the city, causing the agricultural products to spoil quickly," said Sainah, who is the ninth of 10 siblings.

Sainah added that it costs RM700 by car or RM600 by boat for round trips between Pensiangan and Nabawan.

To address these challenges, she proposed turning taro into powder to make it lighter and more manageable for transportation.

Sainah's idea qualified her to advance into the semi-finals which also meant that she was required to travel an additional eight hours to present in the semifinals in Kundasang, Ranau.

She secured a spot in the top 10 and received a RM20,000 grant from the competition.

"For now, I am focusing on my career of cultivating yam with the hope of realising my idea to scale up sales of agricultural products from our village."