KLANG, 5 Mar: The Minister of Agriculture and Agro-based Industry, Datuk Seri Noh Omar should focus on enhancing the quality of income of farmers throughout the country.
Chief Minister Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim said that a good Agricultural Minister is an individual who is able to improve the per-capita income of farmers to a higher level.
Abdul Khalid said this in his response in relation to Noh’s allegations, saying that Selangor is the state to receive the highest complaints through the Public Complaints Bureau (PCB) of the Prime Minister’s Department from October till December last year.
“He (Noh Omar) must take into account that there are many poor Malaysians under his ministry.
“How many of the farmers have incomes that exceed RM3,000 per month?
“How many fishermen earn RM2,000 per month?
“If he (Noh) himself has a ministry where there are a lot of poor people, I think that he should resign,” said Abdul Khalid.
He said this during his visit to the Permodalan Negeri Selangor Berhad (PNSB) dialysis centre here, in Taman Sri Andalas.
He said that Pakatan Rakyat has a plan to reduce the income gap between the rich and poor, especially to defend the farmers.
“Our research shows the ability of the Ministry of Agriculture and its slow strategy (in increasing the income of farmers),” he said.