More than 6,000 paddy planters receive takaful medical coverage card

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 8 (Bernama) -- More than 6,000 paddy planters who are also participants of the BERNAS Komuniti Industri Tani (KITA) Programme received their Takaful Kasih Plus Programme KITA medical coverage cards from Agrobank.

Padiberas Nasional Berhad (BERNAS) in a statement said the takaful card is among the benefits received by paddy planters who participated in the KITA programme.

"Adhering to the motto of Empowering Valuable Resources, one of the objectives of our KITA programme is to help improve the living standard of paddy planters by creating opportunities and added value programmes,  encouraging and guiding rice farmers towards increasing rice production," according to the statement.

According to a paddy planter who registered with the programme, participants also received benefits like Incentives for Increasing Rice Yield, Quality of paddy, and valuable exposure through various development and training programmes.

A paddy planter from Pasir Puteh in Kelantan, Che Hassan Delah, 55, said the KITA Programme is actually an initiative to gather all paddy planters to work together under one programme.

“Under this platform, all discussions and ideas can be shared with paddy planters throughout the country. We also provide training like the introduction to Plantation Work Schedule to improve yield and quality of our paddy,” he said in the same statement.

Another planter, Mohd Noor Hashim, 59, from Kuala Perlis said delighted and grateful when farmers received the benefits offered through the takaful coverage card.

“Alhamdulillah, by participating in the programme, farmers also get to enjoy various benefits offered. After being a farmer for more than 28 years, this is the first time I received benefits under the Takaful Kasih Plus protection scheme,” he said.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industry (MAFI) Secretary-General Datuk Haslina Abdul Hamid presented a replica of the takaful card together with Agrobank Chief Executive Officer Tengku Ahmad Badli Shah Raja Hussin and Head of BERNAS Concession Management and Upstream Activities Division Abdul Rahman Mohd Nasri held at the Agriculture, Horticulture and Agro Tourism Exhibition (MAHA 2022) in Serdang yesterday.

-- BERNAMA