JOHOR BARU: More than 200,000ha of land should be allocated to plant rice to ensure Malaysia achieves self-sufficiency, says Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman.
The Muda president said that the government needs to act fast to create a sustainable food supply for the people.
"The government has always talked about the Mini Sekinchan Large-Scale Smart Paddy Project, but at the same time, there are issues of fertiliser and padi seeds being supplied late to the farmers," he said after attending the Hala Tuju Muda town hall session at Taman Daya here on Saturday (Oct 14).
The Muar MP added that there should also be transparency for rice supplies delivered to supermarkets to ensure accountability.
"There are cases where the data on paper does not match the data on the ground. For example, a supermarket was listed to have received 200 packs of 10kg of rice, but they only received 20 packs," he added.
"We should also use our soft diplomacy to meet with the Indian government to immediately lift the ban on rice exports, like (they have for) Singapore," he said.
