THE government will consider planting initiatives to boost the country’s rice production in five seasons within two years.

The Cabinet Committee on the National Food Security Policy, in its meeting chaired by Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim yesterday, made a decision on the matter.

The meeting also considered Federal Agricultural Marketing Authority efforts to ensure the availability of food supply and the proposal to establish a closed-house breeding system for productive and safe farm management.

“A total of three papers were examined to improve the country’s agro-food ecosystem, especially in achieving the targeted level of food security,” the Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement today.

Deputy Prime Minister Fadillah Yusof, who is also plantation and commodities minister, along with related cabinet members and senior government officials, were present at the meeting responsible for formulating a more holistic and sustainable food security policy and strategy.

The committee also focuses on strengthening the country’s food security, taking into account factors that affect the agriculture sector, such as climate change, resource constraints, geopolitical conflicts, food access, income gaps and dietary practices.

“Socioeconomic factors such as population income, logistics costs and food prices that affect access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food need to be given special attention in planning steps to deal with the uncertainty of food security,”  the statement read.

The government, through the Agriculture and Food Security Ministry, is working to implement various initiatives to reduce trade deficit by strengthening research and development activities for seed varieties planted in the country.

The ministry also strives to improve the export performance of agricultural-based downstream products and boost domestic food production activities.

“In addition, the implementation of the Festive Season Maximum Price Control Scheme from April 15 to 30 and the Menu Rahmah initiative has been able to help reduce the impact of price increases in April,” said the statement.

Malaysia is ranked 41st among 113 countries based on the Global Food Security Index 2022, down seven spots from 2021, illustrating the government’s challenges and priorities to implement more effective improvement measures to boost food security.

However, the government will continue to ensure that proactive measures are always emphasised in analysing and identifying new initiatives and designing more comprehensive, relevant and strategic interventions to guarantee the sustainability of agro-food input supply and national food production activities. – Bernama, June 10, 2023.