Tools for Planning and Mapping a Food-Secure Malaysia

Food security is foremost on Malaysians’ minds because of rising food prices. The Consumer Price Index for food and non-alcoholic beverages was 6.8 per cent in December 2022, outpacing all other categories. 

A major contributing factor is Malaysia’s insufficient domestic production resulting in high import dependency. Malaysia’s food import bill rose to RM63 billion in 2021, up from RM55.1 billion and RM51.4 billion in 2020 and 2019 respectively. Recent factors — Covid19, Climate, Conflict, and Currency — have resulted in food supply disruptions and subsequent price hikes in 2022 across most key food items. The Russian-Ukraine conflict contributed to fuel, feed and fertiliser inflation. Floods and heat waves due to climate change have stressed production yields. Malaysia’s weakening currency has also put upward pressure on domestic prices of imported foods. 

These factors weakened a sector already beleaguered by under-investment, low productivity, and inability to attract local talent. Aging farmers and continuous employment of cheap foreign labour have contributed to slow modernisation and technology adoption.

Recognising the urgency, Malaysia’s Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security (MAFS) introduced targeted policies. Starting from 2020, it set up the Cabinet Committee on National Food Security Policy (FSCC), and adopted the National Food Security Policy Action Plan 2021-2025, and the National Agro-Food Policy 2021-2030. While Malaysia’s new food policies are comprehensive, implementation details have yet to be released.

An Agriculture and Food Masterplan, accompanied by Industry Transformation Roadmaps, will boost global investor confidence, and help Malaysia meet its urgent food security challenges.

Two tools that could support its implementation are agriculture land and space masterplans and industry transformation roadmaps.  

Masterplans help to define where food can be produced. Qatar, a country facing geographic and climatic constraints for agriculture, devised its Master Plan for Achieving Water and Food Security as a key instrument of the Qatar National Food Security programme launched in 2008. The success of this programme eventually resulted in Qatar securing first place among Arab countries in the Global Food Security Index 2021.

Of the eight million hectares of agriculture land (agri-land) in Malaysia, less than 1 million hectares is used for food production — rice, fruits, vegetables and livestock farming — while the rest is used for palm oil and rubber. Clearly, more land needs to be allocated specifically for food production.

Beyond land, urban spaces can be used for food production. Urban farms allow short supply chains. Klang Valley and Selangor, for example, have more than 2.8 million square metres of unoccupied commercial spaces; some could be used for intensive farming. Zoning laws, codes and regulation require updates to permit appropriate industrial and indoor spaces to be unlocked for food production. In Johor, the Iskandar Malaysia Urban Farming project re-allocated underutilised government spaces for urban farming; similar initiatives in other cities could be expanded.

Masterplans may also encourage land tenure reforms to secure fertile lands for longer leases. With greater surety, farmers may be more inclined to invest in modernising farming. Currently, many have short-term or temporary leases and thus have few incentives to do so.

Masterplans could also designate modern and safe food zones that can satisfy export standards. Some states have already adopted such plans. Sarawak, for example, is collaborating with companies in the Netherlands and Singapore to become an agro-export powerhouse.

Roadmaps explain how goals can be achieved. To reach self-sufficiency, each key food item requires individual roadmaps that take into consideration space needed, production technology, value chain development, resources, research, and funding. Demand management and climate adaptation strategies should also be developed to future-proof each roadmap. Singapore developed an industry transformation roadmap in 2016, with a focus on developing four “thrusts” — space, innovation, people and ecosystem — which eventually helped in its goal of domestically producing 30 percent of food by 2030.

Malaysia urgently needs a transformation map for fertiliser. The country is vulnerable to fertiliser supply disruptions. Fortunately, technological solutions are available to produce fertiliser domestically, but this requires large infrastructure investments by the government. For example, Japan’s national government is funding local municipalities to build facilities to extract phosphorus and develop fertiliser from sewage sludge, to replace up to 20% of its imported fertiliser.

Another vital transformation map must address farming talent. This requires a comprehensive range of measures, including providing diverse education options, short-term training programmes, apprenticeships, placements, and land/space matching schemes.

One way to raise talents is to inculcate a passion for farming from young by including gardening in school curriculums. Community farms are a visible reminder of our sources of food, and its proliferation would facilitate interest in growing food. This would align with the Buku Hijau (Green book) programme launched in 1974 to encourage every citizen to garden or farm. With 77.7% of Malaysians living in urban areas, community farms should be opened up within cities and towns  — thus circling back to the need for masterplans.

During Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s recent visit to Singapore, he called on Singapore to work together to make Malaysia a food production heartland for mutual food security. An Agriculture and Food Masterplan, accompanied by Industry Transformation Roadmaps, will boost global investor confidence, and help Malaysia meet its urgent food security challenges.

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