Dr Sarena Che Omar
KUALA LUMPUR: Diversifying food production hubs geographically can improve food security nationwide as it will prevent over-reliance on national food production in certain areas, said Khazanah Research Institute deputy director of research Dr Sarena Che Omar (pic).
Improving food production in Sabah and Sarawak can also help boost food security in Malaysia.
“This is to ensure we do not geographically concentrate our national food production in one area too much.
“For example, a regional natural disaster happening in a location where we produce most of our staple food could pose a risk to our food supply, like the concentration of padi cultivation in our northern states of the peninsula,” she said.
Yesterday, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim announced in the Budget 2024 that RM400mil will be allocated for the Food Security Reinforcement Programme, with a special focus on increasing the production of local food crops that still depend on foreign imports.
The programme’s funds will be spent on optimising land usage, fertilisers, agricultural disaster funds, and the Padi Planting Takaful Scheme (Skim takaful tanaman padi).
Dr Sarena said, according to the Global Food Security Index (GFSI), Malaysia is weakest within the sustainability and stability pillar.
“This is so given our poor focus on climate adaptation initiatives, especially with regard to food security.
“More can be done within this segment to make our agriculture sector more climate resilient, such as through more intense research and development in breeding climate-resilient varieties and better adoption of technologies to allow early detection and reaction to weather changes.
“The RM400mil funds allocated will certainly help, and with food security mentioned more frequently in our Budget announcements in recent years, it is a positive signal that the government is paying serious attention to this pressing area,” she said.
Lauding the government’s efforts to optimise land usage for farming, urban farm Kebun-Kebun Bangsar (KKB) founder Ng Sek San said providing land and infrastructure is better compared to one-off handouts.
“Our farm did benefit from the National Economic Recovery Plan (Penjana) grant in previous years, where we got fertilisers, seeds and equipment, but such programmes are susceptible to abuse.
“What urban farmers need is infrastructure such as electricity and water supply to grow their crops.
“There is also a lot of government land that can be made into urban farms and contribute to the locality’s food supplies,” said Ng.
