KUALA TERENGGANU, Jan 4 — Terengganu’s agricultural sector suffered RM48.7 million in losses due to the massive floods that hit the state on Dec 18 last year.

State Agriculture, Food Industry, Plantation, Commodity and Rural Development Committee chairman Dr Azman Ibrahim said the figure was the highest in five years after the disaster that struck in February 2022 resulted in losses of about RM2 million.

He said, however, the figure was expected to increase as the Terengganu Agricultural Disaster Fund Committee was still collecting and updating data that would be completed on Jan 15.

"As of today, the agriculture sub-sector registered the biggest amount of losses, namely RM39.2 million involving 2,555 farmers.

"The livestock sub-sector suffered RM3.4 million in losses involving 781 farmers, while RM6.1 million in losses were incurred by the fishery sub-sector, involving 360 aquaculture farmers and fishermen,” he said here today.

According to Dr Azman, the Terengganu Agricultural Disaster Committee would hold a meeting early next month to discuss the aid that would be distributed to all the affected farmers.

"The floods this time have resulted in huge losses to many sectors such as fisheries and agriculture in the eight districts in the state.

"Therefore, the state government has approved additional funding for the Terengganu Agricultural Disaster Fund (to help the affected farmers), but the amount has not yet been determined,” he said. — Bernama