In recent weeks we’ve seen heightened global economic uncertainty, driven by conflict and disrupted trade. Distant as that may be, it poses real risks to food security here in Malaysia.
Indeed, experts feared a “food security time bomb” from rising fuel prices, disrupted supply chains and fertiliser flow, and inflation. Malaysia is especially vulnerable to such global shocks as we import over 60% of food.
We import 99% of onions (costing RM1.5bil) and 97% of coffee beans. We also import most of our mutton (90%), beef (85%), ginger (87%), chillies (67%), round cabbage (61%), and milk (57%), 2024 Department of Statistics (DOSM) data shows. Even staples are imported – 45% of vegetables and 35% of rice – as are key agricultural inputs: 90% of seeds, 60% of fertilisers, and 100% of grain corn for animal feed (which rose in price by 110% recently). In 2023, food imports cost nearly RM80bil.
Export restrictions can trigger price spikes and panic buying, which has previously forced government intervention through price controls and subsidies. With rising fuel and fertiliser costs, traders also warn of higher food prices. Affordability of food is a bigger challenge than availability. Many families already cannot afford the recommended daily intake of vegetables and fruits.
This is why food security is a top concern, which the prime minister met with state leaders to discuss last week. It’s also why the ministry was renamed the Agriculture and Food Security Ministry (MAFF) in 2022.
How did we get so dependent on imports? Malaysia has long prioritised commodity crops – 2024 DOSM figures show 88% of our agricultural land is used for oil palm, rubber, and cocoa production.
Land tenure is another constraint. State governments have sold farmland to developers and farmers who cultivated land for generations have been evicted with little public accountability. Some applied for land titles but without success.
For example, 95% of land in the Kantan-Hulu Kinta area, which once produced most of Perak’s fresh vegetables and fruit, has been sold, writes former Sungai Siput MP Dr Jeyakumar Devaraj in the article “Hidden crisis: Malaysia’s food security blind spots”. Most farmers have been evicted; four are still fighting court cases, he says, explaining the land system set up by the British ignores the history and type of land use.
Cattle farmers who reared livestock in plantation areas for generations have also been evicted in recent years under a “zero cattle” policy. This is despite evidence – corroborated by MAFF experts – that integrated farming reduces herbicide use and costs, boosts biodiversity, and improves yields, Dr Jeyakumar says.
Bayan Baru MP Sim Tze Tzin has called for state governments to focus more on agriculture and for reforms in farmland access, subsidies, and farmer support.
“There’s no focus on helping farmers,” he said in an interview with online health news website CodeBlue. “So they are struggling, and then they give up and exit the industry altogether.”
He proposes allocating idle land to farmers along with long-term leases. Costs to farm the land and invest in technology cannot be recovered with short-term leases.
Cheap imports are another challenge. In March 2026, a surge of imports and oversupply forced farmers in Cameron Highlands to sell produce significantly below cost, incur losses, and deplete savings. Despite calls for tighter controls, vegetable imports have expanded, now coming from Bangladesh and Pakistan as well as Asean nations, and surging from China by 36% annually from 2022 to 2024. As some of these countries use pesticides banned in Malaysia, it’s questionable how their produce gets certified to enter Malaysia. Dr Jeyakumar has called for adjustment of the Asean Free Trade Agreement so food is not undermined.
Without regulating imports, warned Tanah Rata assemblyman Ho Chi Yang last year, the livelihoods of farmers are threatened, deterring young entrants to the field. “Ultimately, this will undermine the nation’s food security goals.”
Most farmers today are poor and ageing, and 90% are smallholders who lack access to credit or technology. The industry needs to modernise in areas such as post-harvest handling, where a lack of cold storage and poor packaging leads to significant losses of produce. Cooperative models could help share technology.
The government has ramped up funds to improve the agrifood sector, including investing in “smart” farming and young entrepreneurs. There are incentives for coffee bean and onion cultivation, and plans to expand cattle breeding and aquaculture, as well as to achieve self-sufficiency in fresh milk, which the government wants to promote over sweetened milk.
Of the hefty 2026 agriculture budget, a third still goes to the rice sector though, where years of funding have not lifted productivity. Critics call for wider reform, arguing the market is distorted by monopolies and controls under Bernas, the sector’s regulator, and to redirect subsidies directly to farmers.
Dr Jeyakumar says Malaysia’s reliance on rice and wheat (all imported) for caloric supply – a key measure of food security – leaves us vulnerable. To safeguard against possible wheat shortages, he says we should grow high caloric foods such as maize, tubers, and sago, and develop technology to process flour from them.
Prof Jane Gew from Sunway University’s medical school also calls for diversification to yams and sweet potato, as well as legumes and nuts, which are more climate-resilient, nutritionally richer (especially in fibre and micronutrients), and support soil health.
She calls for the prioritisation of climate-resilient vegetable crops – such as okra, eggplant, chilli, long beans, pigeon pea, and mung bean – and technologies for climate-smart production, post-harvest systems, and processing to make tubers and legumes into convenient foods.
Rather than environmentally- costly red meat, she advocates investing in lower-impact protein sources: sustainable poultry, tofu value chains, seaweed, legumes, and pulse processing (converting seeds into flours or oils). Bayam seeds produce one of the most protein-rich flours, amaranth.
Consumers also have a role to play: Buying local produce supports our farmers and often means fresher, safer, and more climate-friendly produce. In feeding ourselves, we can help strengthen our food security.
