FARMERS and fishermen protested outside Parliament today, urging the federal government to address food security issues and singling out Penang and Perak as states where development plans needed to be reviewed as they threaten food production.

“The Perak and Penang state governments should be invited to the cabinet committee on food security so that their approach, which is threatening food supply with regards to vegetable farming and fisheries can be discussed, reviewed, and amended,” the group of food producers collectively known as Jaringan Pengeluar Makanan said in a memorandum to the prime minister.

The memorandum was handed today to representatives from PM Ismail Sabri’s office and the Agriculture and Food Industries Ministry, according to Nurfitri Amir Muhammad, an activist with Padi Rescue.

Perak is currently in the news for evicting several vegetable farmers who have been planting on land that the state government has given over to private developers. The farmers have reportedly applied for temporary occupation licences (TOL) but have been rejected repeatedly.

Penang, meanwhile, has been a flashpoint for fishermen groups for its plan to build three artificial islands under the Penang South Reclamation project that will affect the fishing waters between southern Penang and Lumut in Perak.

The group in its memorandum said the reclamation project should be cancelled for its devastating impact on the marine and coastal environment, besides threatening food supply.

Vegetable farmers, meanwhile, said 12 groups of farmers were currently facing eviction in the Kinta district and in Batang Padang to give way to housing and industrial projects.

“A royal commission at the Perak level should be formed to investigate if state lands are being administered well by the government, and whether the state is going to prioritise food production or favour short-term profits by degazetting land (for development).”

The memorandum also proposed ways for the state to preserve land for vegetable farming, by using land given to developers where projects had not commenced and where farmers were still planting.

“Replacement plots can be given to the developers. The (undeveloped) land should be set aside for lease to farmers for 10 to 20 years on condition that it cannot be redeveloped to plant palm oil or rubber, and cannot be used for housing or industries. It must only be for vegetable planting.

“But if the farmer does not work the land, after one year, the government can take it back and lease it to another farmer.”

Accompanying the farmers and fishermen today was Parti Sosialis Malaysia who had been active in fighting the cause of the Perak vegetable farmers recently.

Pakatan Harapan lawmakers present were Bayan Baru MP Sim Tze Tzin, Pokok Sena MP Mahfuz Omar, and Pasir Gudang MP Hassan Abdul Karim.

Sim, a former deputy agriculture and food industries minister, said Malaysia had eight million ha of land reserved for farming, but oil palm plantations took up the most at six million ha, while food production only utilised one million ha.

He said this “imbalance” had led to problems with food supply and made it difficult for farmers to play their role in ensuring Malaysia’s food security.

Other food producers, such as rice farmers and livestock breeders detailed their grouses in the memorandum.

For rice farmers, the various government subsidies available to them were not given directly but through certain companies, and they suggested the government give cash or vouchers to help them obtain the subsidised input materials themselves.

Rice farmers should also be given an allowance of RM200 a month for the months they have no income while waiting for paddy to ripen before harvesting, they suggested.

Livestock breeders, meanwhile, want the government to get plantation giant Sime Darby to stop its practice of chasing away cattle grazing on the company’s plantations.

They also want the government to subsidise the cost of cattle feed, and to impose quotas on imported beef to help boost production and sale of local beef.

Plantation land, which covers 17% of Malaysia’s land area, should be used for livestock grazing, a better strategy than clearing forests or new land for the purpose, they added.

According to the farmers’ groups, Malaysia’s self-sufficiency in beef is at 20%. The country’s food imports reached RM65 billion last year, they said, most of it for basic items such as wheat and cereals, vegetables, fish, and milk.

This is an increase from the country’s food import bill of RM55.5 billion in 2020. - July 26, 2022.