Addressing capacity building vital for Brunei's rice sector

THE sending of 29 representatives, including 20 students from Wasan Vocational School to attend a course in the field of padi production in Manila, the Philippines, should be viewed as a move to address the critical issue of capacity building, said Deputy Minister of Industry and Primary Resources yesterday.

Speaking to The Brunei Times during a send-off ceremony at the Brunei International Airport for the 20 students yesterday, Dato Paduka Hj Hamdillah Hj Abd Wahab said that the departure of the group was an initiative that was necessary to make food security sustainable.

"(It's important) if you're gonna create an environment whereby, for example, padi plantation (in the country), to increase from three per cent to 20 per cent (for 2010), becomes a sustainable initiative," he said.

"I mean we (Brunei) can always do it by importing foreign labours for example, but what we are trying to do here is to address the issue of what we call as capacity building," he added.

He explained that the initiative was all about growing the workforce made up of young Bruneians to manage padi plantation and production in the near future.

"It's about making sure our own young people to actually take all the challenge of planting padi," he said, adding that the focus (of the course) was not only on planting padi and harvesting them, but it also extended to choosing the right fertilisers and equipment.

Dato Paduka Hj Hamdillah also lauded the structural arrangement of the group during their course in Manila, where the students will be divided into five groups consisting of four members in each group.

He elaborated that an individual in each group will be expected to write a personal report and while submitting a group report collectively.

"When they produce a group report, they are going to be talking about their experience, not just about what happen in the padi fields, but what they see and what they feel, the experience," the deputy minister said.

"This is a critical phase. This is the implementation phase of a journey which was started last year (by His Majesty the Sultan and Yang-Di Pertuan of Brunei Darussalam). We are here to make sure that all the links in the chain is addressed," he added.

The course, facilitated by Philippines Rice Research Institute (PhilRice), is specially designed to cater to the students as well as participating officers and staff from the Department of Agriculture and Agrifood (DAA) in enhancing and deepening their knowledge as well as sharpening their skills and performance on rice production and to promote the technology of rice production in Brunei.

The 20-day course was part of a collaboration project undertaken by the Brunei government through the Ministry of Industry and Primary Resources (MIPR) and the Phillipine government.

Present to bid farewell and show support to the delegation yesterday was MIPR Minister Pehin Orang Kaya Seri Utama Dato Seri Setia Hj Yahya Begawan Mudim Dato Paduka Hj Bakar, the Philippines Ambassador to Brunei Alexander Yano, permanent secretary, the deputy permanent secretary and senior officials and staff from the MIPR as well as the Ministry of Education.

The Brunei Times