The government, he said, had offered such subsidies – over RM720 million – to ensure the price of chicken does not go up.

But many farmers, he said, did not take up the offer.

“So we will not give subsidies to farmers anymore. Instead, the amount will go directly to the ‘Rakyat’ who we feel, need it more,” he said at the Barisan Nasional convention today.

Ismail said the domestic and consumer affairs ministry as well as the agriculture and food industries ministry will provide more details later.

According to a report in The Star, agriculture and food industries minister Ronald Kiandee said yesterday that subsidy applications for poultry farms could still be made after the June 5 deadline.

He admitted that the initiative was previously hindered by red tape due to the requirement of several levels of approval, but added that the procedure had been shortened to where state governments could give initial approval.

On Feb 9, the government decided to provide a 60 sen per kg subsidy to poultry farmers, to maintain the farm-level price of live chicken at RM5.90 per kg and the retail price of standard chicken at RM8.90 per kg.

In a previous statement, Ronald said that the subsidy period was from Feb 5 to June 4, during the implementation of the Keluarga Malaysia Maximum Price Control Scheme.

According to Ronald, the subsidies were to ease the burden of farmers following the increase in costs, especially for feed, which covers 70% of production costs apart from logistics, labour, utilities and medicine.

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