MARANG: The Terengganu government has set a six-year target to establish the largest goat-rearing valley and mutton-producing hub in the country.
Mentri Besar Datuk Ahmad Said said the state had primed 2015 as the year to attain the target based on current production.
“By 2013, we will generate and supply quality-bred goats to other parts of the country and cover 65% of total local demand,” he said after touring a goat farm raising the Cosmopal breed at the Serating Integrated Agriculture Hub here recently.
Ahmad said the state had five goat breeders farming on a large scale and the number of breeders would soar within a few years with the incentives provided by the state. “We are optimistic that Terengganu will be a goat valley in the next few years,” he said
Meanwhile, Ahmad said that the Serating Agriculture Hub would also be developed as an agro-tourism site. He said the hub had vast potential to lure tourists due to its location and agricultural activities.
More private companies were keen to venture into agriculture-based endeavours at the hub, he added. “The development of a 400ha site into an agro-tourism park at the hub will be carried out in stages,” he said.
Ahmad said the state had also approved an 80ha site for the cultivation of maize. He said the maize produced at the hub would be used as food for the goats.
