PUTRAJAYA, Sept 18 — The Agriculture and Food Security Ministry (MAFS) today launched the Start-Up and Scale-Up Grants to help youth in the agriculture and agrofood sector reduce start-up costs and expand agricultural projects.
Its deputy minister Datuk Arthur Joseph Kurup in a statement said the Start-Up Grant is an improvement on the Young Agropreneur Grant previously offered by the ministry.
He said through the new grant, the value of aid in kind was increased to RM30,000 compared to RM20,000 previously. Besides that, the age limit, previously 18 to 40, has been increased to 18 to 43.
Meanwhile, the Scale-Up Grant was introduced to support agropreneurs who remain active and viable in the agrofood sector, especially in upstream projects such as crops, livestock and fisheries.
“Through the initiative, MAFS provides extended assistance of up to RM50,000 to young agropreneurs who have received the Young Agropreneur Grant to develop agricultural projects,” he said.
Arthur said the Scale-Up Grant is open to applications by agropreneurs aged 21 to 45 to fund the use of agrotechnology such as Controlled Environment Agriculture, urban agriculture, and Internet of Things technology and artificial intelligence.
He said 9,754 young agropreneurs have been approved for grants with an in-kind value of RM178.5 million so far.
“The incentive assistance provided is one of MAFS’ efforts to rejuvenate the agricultural sector and indirectly to continue to ensure that the national security agenda can be achieved,” he said.
More information about the two grants as well as the Young Agropreneur Programme can be found at MAFS’ website.
— Bernama
