A sense of urgency needed

Pressing challenge: Improving Malaysia’s food security requires an ecosystem and a mix of food policies, technology and entrepreneurship, says Prof Nasir. — 123rf.com

THERE has been a slew of announcements from the Prime Minister’s Office in recent weeks related to food, whether on production, import or security.

One of the first announcements was the decision to do away with approved permits for Malaysians to import food from abroad.

At the recent Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, Defence Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein spoke about new forms of security challenges the world is facing, including food insecurity which is threatening societies and exacerbating conflicts. This is made worse by the Covid-19 pandemic which has already seen supply chain disruptions globally, halting the flow of food supplies and raw materials.

The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) issued a report in April saying that the Russia-Ukraine war that began in February has caused extensive damage and loss of life in key population centres, which has resulted in a massive food security challenge and disrupted livelihoods during the agricultural growing season in Ukraine and this has, in turn, affected global food security.

The UN agency pointed out that even before the war in Ukraine, international food prices had reached an all-time high. This was mostly due to market conditions, but also the high prices of energy, fertilisers and all other agricultural services.

In February, the FAO Food Price Index reached a new historical record of 21% above its level a year earlier, and 2.2% higher than its previous peak in February 2011.

The scenario is worrying. We should be concerned about our own food production. Malaysia has been spending over RM50bil a year on imported basic food items such as rice (30%), beef (78 %), mutton (90%) and round cabbage (60%).

We need to do more to be self-sufficient. The recent announcements about action taken and to be taken to ensure a continuous domestic supply of food seem more like knee-jerk reactions.

On Monday, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob said collaboration between federal and state governments would be intensified in the effort to increase the amount of land available for agricultural use.

“This is to reduce dependence on food imports. This matter will be further discussed in a meeting with the Menteris Besar and Chief Ministers soon.”

He said the government would also enhance public-private cooperation by focusing on modernisation efforts and encouraging smart agriculture to increase agricultural yields.

“This initiative will be supported through efforts to consolidate farmland, idle land and waqf land (Islamic endowment land),” he said.

Land, like water, is under the purview of state governments. Land acquisition in Malaysia can be complex on top of the usual bureaucratic process.

A former Mentri Besar said these are not normal times.

“First, there must be understanding and awareness that this is a serious issue. It is not a federal issue neither is this about the states.

“It is not about the government, it is about the survival of the people and the country. It should be a concerted effort at all levels, involving all parties.

“We have government land, idle land waiting to be cultivated. It should be a long-term plan.”

Concerted efforts mean getting cooperatives and the villages involved, and for the government to facilitate matters, including by providing fertiliser and conducting campaigns to get every village to be self-sufficient in producing food.

“The government needs to come up with a mechanism for investment cooperatives or even the GLCs [government-linked corporations] which have land to allocate space for food crops.

“Everybody must understand that this is everyone’s problem and not to expect the government alone to solve it. It is a concerted effort and awareness is vital,” he added.

Prof Datuk Dr M. Nasir Shamsudin of Universiti Putra Malaysia’s Agriculture Faculty revealed that due to competition with oil palm and other sectors, the land area planted with food crops is only about 850,000ha, compared with more than five million hectares for palm oil alone.

While he welcomed the move to increase the land for food production, he said it might not be able to overcome the current food supply issue.

Like the former Mentri Besar, Prof Nasir wants the federal government to give incentives to the states to allocate a certain hectarage of land for food production.

“The states utilise the land among competing uses for the development of the states and also for revenue generation.

“With this incentive mechanism, the state will obtain a certain amount of revenue from the federal level for allocating land for food production. The amount of incentives can be computed based on the value of food production.”

To tackle Malaysia’s food import bill, Prof Nasir said the food production sector must be developed and transformed, similar to the oil palm sector.

“This can be achieved by emulating the oil palm production model in the food sector where a large plantation, which is private sector- led, co-exists with smallholder production units.

“To stimulate the investment, incentives to the private sector must be formulated in a way that the return in investment in food production is on par with industrial crops, such as oil palm investment. This can be encouraged through appropriate domestic resource mobilisation initiatives and fiscal policies.”

Prof Nasir pointed out a structural problem in food production: The average farm size is generally very small and barely conducive to efficient and profitable farming.

In rice production, for example, there are 0.3 million padi farmers but only 40% are full time farmers. The farm sizes of 65% of padi farmers are below 1ha. In the fruits sector, about four-fifths of the farms are less than 0.5ha and only 33% of them can be considered commercial operations. About 80% of vegetable farms are less than 2ha.

Prof Nasir believes to ensure the supply of quality and safe food at affordable prices, investment in food production should not only be evaluated in terms of private benefits, but also social returns and the country’s security and peacefulness. This requires an ecosystem and a mix of food policies, technology and entrepreneurship.

Food security, whether we like it or not is vital for peace and security. The pressing challenge for us is to act now.