Growing resilience through science

THE July 8 article in The Star, “Keeping food prices affordable amid US-Iran conflict while building resilience” (online at bit.ly/star_securefood), highlights an important reality. Whether the challenge comes from a changing climate or global events beyond our borders, food security ultimately depends on the resilience of our agricultural system.

While strategic reserves, diversified supply chains, and supportive government policies are all essential, strengthening food security should also include strengthening the productivity and resilience of the crops themselves.

As a scientist, I believe one of the most important questions we should continue asking is this: How can science help farmers produce more food using the resources they already have?

This question is particularly relevant for Malaysia’s smallholders.

Smallholders form the backbone of many agricultural communities, yet they are often the most vulnerable to changing weather patterns, rising production costs, and disruptions to global supply chains. Scientific innovation can make a meaningful difference only if it is practical, accessible and capable of fitting into the realities of everyday farming.

This is why photosynthesis-enhancing technologies are attracting growing interest within the scientific community. Photosynthesis is the biological process that drives plant growth, yet it is easily affected by environmental stresses such as excessive heat, water scarcity, and nutrient limitations. Helping plants maintain more efficient photosynthesis under these conditions creates opportunities to improve crop productivity and make better use of available natural resources.

Equally exciting is how these innovations can embrace circular economy principles. Agricultural residues, often regarded as waste, contain valuable carbon resources that can be transformed using nanotechnology into advanced materials that enhance plant performance.

This demonstrates how scientific research can simultaneously address two important challenges: creating greater value from agricultural by-products while supporting more sustainable food production.

Importantly, these technologies are designed to complement rather than replace existing farming practices. Farmers should not have to overhaul their crop management systems to benefit from scientific advances.

Instead, innovation is most impactful when it integrates naturally into established agronomic practices, making adoption simpler and more inclusive, particularly for smallholders.

Early field trials and commercial applications of photosynthesis-enhancing technologies have demonstrated crop productivity improvements of up to 60%, depending on the crop and growing conditions. While no single innovation can eliminate the risks posed by climate change or geopolitical uncertainty, these outcomes demonstrate how science can strengthen the resilience of farming communities by helping smallholders produce more with the resources they already have.

When science is developed with farmers in mind, it does more than improve productivity; it helps build a more resilient agricultural ecosystem that benefits communities, the economy and future generations.

PROF DR SURAYA ABDUL RASHID

Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering

Faculty of Engineering

Universiti Putra Malaysia

The writer is a researcher at UPM’s Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology and co-founder and chief scientist of Qarbotech Sdn Bhd.