Sabah Chief Minister Datuk Seri Panglima Musa Aman, while presenting the State’s budget this year, said there are already several aquaculture programmes in place for the continued development of the sector, TheStar reports.
“There are now a total of 48 agriculture programmes under the Mini Estet Sejahtera (Mesej or Mine Estate Prosperity), aquaculture Mesej and Micro Mesej projects, that have been completed or are still on-going in the whole state.
“Once completed, the projects are expected to improve the livelihoods of 2,000 poor households in the whole state. Next year, the state government will allocate RM18.5mil to continue the Mesej projects and so forth,” he said.
The programmes, however, are not only for locals. The state has actively attracted investors to be part of its growing aquaculture industry.
Sabah’s Integrated Lobster Aquaculture Park, better known as iLap, recently became the envy of many as it recorded the world’s first commercially hatched ornate spiny lobsters.
The RM3bil project located within a 9,300ha park is a joint venture between Darden Aquascience Sdn Bhd (a subsidiary of Darden Restaurants Inc), Nexus Sustainable Seafood Sdn Bhd and Inno Fisheries Sdn Bhd (a unit of Yayasan Sabah), and is expected to produce up to 18.1 million kilogrammes of hatchery-based tropical spiny lobsters when it reaches maximum capacity in 2029.
