KUALA LUMPUR, May 14 — Newly-appointed Sarawak Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas has said his priority now is to increase the income of farmers in the Borneo state to at least RM4,000 a month by the year 2020.

The Betong MP was made modernisation of agriculture and rural economy minister in the state Cabinet by Chief Minister Tan Sri Adenan Satem following Barisan Nasional’s resounding victory in the recently concluded Sarawak election.

He announced his resignation as plantation industries and commodities minister in the federal Cabinet last night.

“If we get less than that, then they would be in the poverty line, then the gap between the rich and the poor would widen,” he was quoted saying in a report today by The Borneo Post.

He said that his duty would be to carry out the rural transformation agenda which was set out by BN during the recent Sarawak state election campaign.

He said that rubber tappers and paddy farmers are still getting less than RM1,500 a month, despite pepper farmers earning upwards to RM10,000 a month and oil palm smallholders earning RM5,000 a month.