MALAYSIA’S rice woes would be a thing of the past if padi farmers can improve the average yield rate from four tonnes per hectare to between six and eight tonnes per hectare.
Farmers’ Organisation Authority (FOA) chairman Datuk Mahfuz Omar said this in asserting that the rice shortage faced by the country is due to poor yield from production.
Offering his insight on the situation to The Vibes, Mahfuz did not discount the effect of climate change, which has caused more disruption to food harvests than in the previous decade.
The FOA is focusing on measures to enhance output, he said.
“We are now focusing on the yield rate rather than the average times of planting padi.
“The focus is on the quality of our cultivation and the output, rather than the frequency (of planting),” he said.
The former Pokok Sena MP also urged the respective state governments to focus on production instead of being preoccupied with political differences in governance, especially between the federal and state governments.
Padi is mostly cultivated in states under the control of PAS such as Kedah, Perlis, Kelantan and Terengganu, although other states under the Pakatan Harapan-led unity government have also improved their yields, including Perak, Penang and Selangor.
“If we are united on the farming front, there is a good chance we can no longer rely on imports for supply of rice, the one true staple food for Malaysians,” said the former deputy human resource minister.
Focus on quality cultivation
Mahfuz said that if padi farmers can boost the yield rate, they do not have to undergo the troublesome process of planting stalks more than three times a year.
Padi farmers, including those under mega cultivation schemes, such as those under the Muda Agriculture Development Authority (Mada), are currently encouraged to plant up to five times annually.
“We also hope that our farmers are focused solely on the harvesting rate and are not distracted by the politics of the day.
“If they boost production, surely they will also earn more, as the demand is now more than supply,” he said.
Touching on global concerns over food security following the lockdowns due to Covid-19, Mahfuz said that agriculture provides a good return on investment and labour, especially for staple food like rice.
He urged farmers to focus on quality cultivation so that consumers would no longer need to opt for imports.
Rising prices for imported rice have led to consumers flocking to cheaper local products. Households that find it difficult to afford higher food prices have had their purses squeezed.
With local rice able to meet only 70% of domestic demand, the FOA has begun implementing incentives to increase local production, Mahfuz said.
These days, many supermarkets and grocery stores often have empty shelves, as 5kg and 10kg bags of locally grown white rice are snapped up by customers as soon as new stocks appear.
Growing price gap
Datuk Seri Ameer Ali Mydin, the managing director of popular hypermarket Mydin, was reported as saying that the shortage is caused by the growing gap in prices between locally produced rice and imported varieties.
Local white rice is a controlled food item whose price is capped at RM26 per 10kg.
Malaysia mostly imports rice from India, Pakistan, Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia.
The price gap widened significantly after Padiberas Nasional, a Malaysian conglomerate that controls rice distribution, on September 1 raised the retail price of imported rice by 36% to reflect recent global price rises, leading to a surge in demand for cheaper local rice.
Imported white rice now fetches between RM30 to RM70 for 10kg.
Malaysia has a huge food import bill of up to RM75 billion reported for last year alone.
There has been a steady climb in demand since food consumption is a popular pastime in the country.
Last month, Agriculture and Food Security Minister Datuk Seri Mohamad Sabu had announced measures to alleviate the shortage, including a move by the Federal Agricultural Marketing Authority to increase the distribution of local white rice in rural areas.
For Sabah and Sarawak, Mohamad said the government agreed to give a subsidy of RM950 per tonne for imported white rice beginning October 5, enabling imported white rice to be obtained at a retail price of RM31 per 10km.
On September 28, Mohamad was reported to have said that he would moot government premises’ usage of subsidised imported rice as a measure to increase the supply of local rice in the market.
Meanwhile, India has decided to allow export of white rice to Malaysia on a “special quota” basis after it had banned overseas shipments of non-basmati white rice and imposed a 20% tax on parboiled rice cargoes to protect its domestic supply earlier this year.
A notification was issued to the Directorate-General of Foreign Trade in New Delhi for the special quota of 170,000 metric tonnes following a request from Malaysia. – The Vibes, November 18, 2023
