Continued commitment at every level of the Fisheries Development Authority of Malaysia (LKIM) is important in addressing various challenges in the country’s fisheries sector, especially after the Covid-19 pandemic, said Agriculture and Agro-based Industries Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ronald Kiandee.
According to him, the commitment is also important to strengthen the fisheries sector so that the fishery yield is always sufficient to ensure the country’s food security.
He said as the country moves forward, challenges in the fisheries sub-sector would certainly exist such as climate change, depletion of natural resources, overfishing and the issue of illegal foreign fishermen.
In addition, the challenges are also related to the dependence of the fisheries sub-sector on foreign workers, lack of youth involvement as well as the low level of adoption of 4th Industrial Revolution (4IR) technology.
“These challenges will certainly affect the performance of this sub-sector and the well-being of the target group in the future, if not addressed properly even though this sub-sector has achieved a Self-Sufficiency Level (SSL) of over 90 per cent consistently over the past 10 years,“ he said.