LAST year, Malaysia imported a staggering RM63 billion worth of food.

The recent shortage of chicken and high food prices have created awareness of food security in Malaysia.

Politicians from across the racial, religious and ideological divides have held forth on this issue and rightly so.

At the recent United Nations General Assembly, all heads of government are turning their attention from Covid-19 to the disruption of supply chains for food and other necessities that the pandemic caused.

Of a sudden, food security has become a matter of grave concern.

So, is Malaysia facing a serious food security threat?

The short answer is, not now. Food security is measured mainly by four criteria: availability, affordability, safety and quality, and natural resources and resilience.

Malaysia is ranked 39th in the global food security index and second in Southeast Asia. Not a bad position, given that our agriculture sector, once the mainstay of the economy, has been neglected for many years.

However, 2020 and beyond has altered perspectives, compelling the weighing of issues about food, its cultivation and supply into matters of grave concern.

Four major developments have caused serious concern on food security globally as well as to Malaysia.

First and foremost, the Covid-19 lockdowns caused global supply chain disruptions. It has changed the supply chain forever, including the trade in food.

Second, the trade war and decoupling of China and the United States have spilled over to food trade as well. The trade war will intensify in the foreseeable future.

The third factor complicating matters is the Russia-Ukraine war that began on February 24. Prior to the start of hostilities, Ukraine was responsible for 30% of global wheat supply and Russia was the largest fertiliser export country in the world.

The fourth and, likely, the most important development is climate change. The incidence of extreme heatwaves, followed by droughts, and unprecedented floods that occurred in countries like Pakistan, combined to reduce global food supply.

The scale and intensity of these disasters jarred climate change deniers out of their complacency and forced them to acknowledge that climate change presented a challenge that policy-makers had to factor into their calculations of the future.

In Malaysia, food security overnight became a matter both government and opposition politicians had to reckon with.

How do we as a country prepare for the looming food security crisis?

I would like to propose five action items to make Malaysia more resilient in our agriculture and food industry.

Agriculture land reform

Land is key to all agricultural advancement. If more land is allocated to farmers, more food can be produced.

Peninsular Malaysia currently has eight million hectares of agriculture land.

Around six million hectares or 75% are allocated to oil palm plantations. Another one million hectares or 12.5% are for rubber plantations.

This leaves only one million hectares for all agro-food activity and this includes padi, vegetable, fruit farming, ruminants and fish and shrimp cultivation.

Limited supply of land has severely hindered agricultural advancement in Malaysia.

With limited land available, small farmers often face a multitude of problems. New entrant farmers have difficulty applying for agriculture land.

Small farmers are often given small plots, averaging 1-1.2ha.

They also face short land leases, sometimes requiring annual renewals. As a result, they are unwilling to invest in technology and grow their farm business.

Ironically, big corporations have no problem applying for thousands of hectares from the government.

From Baling to Raub to Lojing Highlands, big companies can obtain thousands of hectares for durian and vegetable cultivation.

To ensure food security, it must be premised on agricultural land reform.

Reforms must take the shape of land redistribution. There must be a proper plan to allocate more agriculture land for food farming.

The available land must be transparent and open to genuine farmers. The land tenure must be long enough for farmers to grow their business.

The state governments must also work hard to eradicate rent seekers who lease agricultural land and rent it to farmers. This systemic problem has burdened genuine farmers and cause food prices to go up.

Agricultural land reform must be comprehensive and should cover all states. We must engage with all stakeholders – the state governments, farmers, the land code and all legal matters.

The solutions must also be comprehensive such that agricultural development becomes sustainable.

For agriculture land reform to happen, I would like to suggest the federal government under Majlis Tanah Negara, which is chaired by the prime minister, take lead and commission a comprehensive study.

This top-down approach will ensure that the future suggestions and road map will be applicable to all states.

State governments must not resist change. The current agriculture land restrictions have seriously curtailed the development of agriculture sector.

Technology in farming

Farming used to be seen as backward and unsophisticated. With new farming technology, modern farming is now a high-tech, high-investment business.

Modern farming can apply technology to the entire supply chain. Take, for example, vegetable farms. Modern vegetable farming started from laboratory research to produce quality seeds.

After that, farmers invested in modern greenhouses with internet-of-things control of climate and optimisation of fertiliser application to save costs and prevent wastage.

Modern vegetable farms can also use high-definition cameras to identify pests and release bio-control to control pests.

Harvesting can also be done with modern automation system.

Vegetable plant factories can also be set up in urban areas using LED lightings to replace sunlight.

Modern padi planting can use GPS-guided, unmanned autonomous vehicles. Farmers can then use drones to apply fertilisers and pesticides. And use GPS-guided autonomous vehicles to harvest.

These farming technologies are already in the market. In a few years, they will be fully commercialised and will transform the agriculture sector.

Malaysian farmers must quickly change their mindset, embrace change and adopt these technologies in stages.

Technology can transform our agriculture sector into high yield, high efficiency modern farming.

It will reduce costs of production and make our ex-farm prices competitive.

With higher yields and stable supply, we can import less from abroad.

Malaysia as an agriculture export nation

Malaysia has long been a successful trading nation. We must not look inward into just thinking about self-sufficiency.

Malaysia must work towards export-based agriculture. Our objective should be set at producing international quality farm products.

When we set national objectives as an agriculture export nation, our agriculture, education and trading policies will change to support the national goals.

We will then focus on qualities of our farm products to meet international standards.

We will intensify our R&D to generate products based on importing countries.

We will also refocus our education policies to educate more farming experts and agronomists. Our trade representatives around the world will also focus on finding new markets for our farm products.

Malaysia as an agriculture export nation is not a dream. We have been successful in exporting palm oil to the world.

We are currently a big exporter of shrimps to the US and Europe. We are also exporting tomatoes to the Middle East and vegetables and poultry to Singapore and Brunei.

By making Malaysia an agriculture export nation, we can greatly improve qualities and quantities of our farm products.

By improving quality and yields, it will benefit the country in terms of food security and food safety.

Work on Malaysia’s comparative advantages

Food trade across the world started thousands of years ago. There were silk roads as well as spice trades from Asia to Europe.

In a globalised world, international food trade will increase by leaps and bounds. Therefore, for Malaysia’s agriculture sector to thrive, we must work on our comparative advantages.

Malaysia has several comparative advantages. Palm oil is one of the best crops that we produce.

In terms of food crops, Malaysia’s tropical fruits segment, such as durians and pineapples, and poultry, fish and shrimp farming are success stories.

We can further work on several emerging sectors such as modern vegetable farming to reduce our reliance on imports.

Malaysia imported RM63 billion worth of food last year. It was alarming. But, if we improve our agriculture sector, we can greatly reduce our food import bill.

If we further improve our comparative advantages by exporting more high value agriculture products such as palm oil, fish, poultry, durians and pineapples, we can improve the balance of trade and even make food trade a surplus!

Attracting agriculture talent and investment

Just like any other business, agriculture needs talent and investment.

The major challenges in agriculture are long return on investment and the lack of talent in the sector. For example, investment in durian farms is big and will only start bearing fruit after seven years.

Malaysian universities hardly produce graduates in agriculture. Without passionate farmers and experts, farms will fail.

To attract talent and investment, governments must incentivise investments. When farmers see potential profits, they will invest and draw new farmers to the sector.

To be fair, the government is currently giving tax-free incentives for agriculture investments for 10 years. However, the application process is long and complicated.

Most farming companies complained that they fail to get the tax exemption status.

The Finance Ministry does not have enough expertise to evaluate investments in agriculture. It is currently focusing on big investments, while the vast majority of small farmers can hardly get tax incentives.

I urge the ministry to seriously reform the tax exemption application process and system. It must be made easy for farmers who are often not sophisticated enough to apply for complicated tax exemption.

When more farmers make money from agriculture, they will produce more.

In conclusion, the government after the next general election must have the vision and mission to tackle food security.

It is not a dream to improve food security in Malaysia. It can be done. We need vision, right policy and right implementation to get there. – October 2, 2022.

* Sim Tze Tzin is former deputy minister of agriculture and agro-based industry.

* This is the opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insight. Article may be edited for brevity and clarity.