KUALA LUMPUR: The Government will give extra emphasise to food security and agriculture due to the threat of global warming and climate change, said Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak.

He said for Asia and Asean, food security in a world with an increasing population and a finite amount of arable land was fast approaching a critical stage.

"As we are collectively faced with the threat of global warming and climate change, the threat of food shortage arising from natural disasters, soil quality deterioration and a host of other factors becomes all too real," he said in his opening remark during the second inter-sessional meeting of the Global Science and Innovation Advisory Council (GSIAC) in Parliament Thursday.

It was the first event organised in Malaysia by the Malaysian Industry Government Group for High Technology in collaboration with the New York Academy of Sciences.

The Prime Minister said the key to address food security must be through the boosting of production through innovation, better technology, improved irrigation and quality of manpower.

He noted that the Government was also concerned about the increasing incidences of non-communicable disease in the country.

"A healthy population is a productive population, and we need a healthy population to achieve the targets we gave set for Malaysia by 2020.

"Malaysia is very keenly aware of this and we have made sustainability the bulwark of out future planning. Even our recent Budget was prepared along these lines, bearing the theme, 'Prospering the Nation, Enhancing the well-being of the people - a promise fulfilled," he said.

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