AS of last year, the country’s self-sufficiency rate (SSR) for rice was at 62.6%, chicken and duck eggs at 108.9%, vegetables at 44.7% and fruits at 78.1%, says Deputy Agriculture and Food Security Minister Datuk Chan Foong Hin.
He said the SSR for other main commodities were 94.4% for chicken and duck meat, followed by edible fish (90.2%), fresh milk (57.3%) and beef (14.7%).
To improve SSR and food security, he said the ministry is trying to boost rice productivity through the Large-Scale Smart Padi Field (Smart SBB) programme, the Mini Sekinchan Model, and the five seasons in two years padi cultivation project.
“The Smart SBB programme aims to increase the country’s SSR for rice to 75% by 2025 and 80% by 2030,” he told Parliament during the question-and-answer session yesterday.
Chan said the Agriculture Ministry was also looking at increasing the production of fruits and vegetables such as ginger, cabbage and chilli.
Under the National Agro Policy 2.0, the ministry is aiming to achieve fruits and vegetable SSR at 83% and 79% respectively by 2030, he added.
He was responding to a question from Datuk Mohd Isam Mohd Isa (BN-Tampin) about the types of crops and livestock that the ministry was focusing on to raise the SSR in order to reduce dependency on food imports.
