The United Nations Committee on World Food Security defines food security as that “all people, at all times, have physical, social, and economic access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food that meets their food preferences and dietary needs for an active and healthy life.”
1] Malaysia’s food security remains challenged
Malaysia’s transition from an agricultural economy to an agribusiness economy, though high value-added but catering to the metropolitan corporate centres and rich communities in the Global North.
With an adherence to the neo-colonial praxis in financial corporatisation of large agribusiness plantations catering to metropolitan countries commercial needs, a country like Malaysia had definitely neglected her domestic food security concern so much that the country imports almost 100% of grain corn or two million tonnes annually from Argentina, Brazil and the US.
Investments into the peasantry agriculture sector are very low at RM$0.7 billion in 2021, just 1.5 percent of the total FDI net inflow.
In fact, five million hectares of land are being cultivated for palm oil compared with just one million hectares for food crops.
Food crops are not as lucrative to monopoly-capital FELDA Global Venture (FGV) in plantation oil-palm production, leading to an agricultural underinvestment regime and low peasantry productivity outcome.
The country has lower average yield per arable land compared to South Korea, Indonesia and the Philippines, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture.
Further, this lack of funds for R&D and innovation within the agricultural sector (for example, for raising yields or for new technology to expand food production) limits the ability to enhance Malaysia’s agriculture spread-effect in support of the national food security agenda.
2] Global Food Security Index
The country is placed 39th out of 113 nations (see figure 1 above) - just one bar ahead of year 2018 (see chart below). At the subset criteria level, Malaysia scored even lower for quality and safety in relation to nutrition adequacy with a ranking of 46.
Specifically, Malaysia is behind in two key nutrition-related components —protein and micronutrients —and correspondingly, the country has high rates of obesity (13 percent), diabetes (18.3 percent), and high blood pressure (38.1 percent).
3] Self Sufficiency Ratio
Malaysia’s food security challenges are exacerbated by its limited self-sufficiency in key food items.
Domestically, 26 items under the selected agricultural commodities recorded Self-Sufficiency Ratio (SSR) of more than 100 percent in 2021. Of those 26 items, fruits and vegetables make up the majority at 65 percent, and chicken and duck eggs are the only item in the important protein category that exceeded 100 percent SSR.
Malaysia’s self-sufficiency for key food items such as fresh milk and beef has been decreasing, with a corresponding increasing reliance on imports (see figure 2).
In 2021, Malaysia was unable to meet SSR targets for select food items such as rice, fresh milk, beef and coconut.
4] Farm-to-Fork process Lacking
Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industries only looks at the agricultural aspects, not the whole farm-to-fork process from agricultural production to consumption (see figure 3).
To ensure food security must be premised on agricultural land reform. There must be truly land reforms like in south Korea and Taiwan.
Reforms must take the shape of land redistribution. There must be a proper plan to allocate more agriculture land for food farming.
The available land must be transparent and open to genuine farmers. The land tenure must be long enough for farmers to grow their business.
The state governments must also work hard to eradicate rent seekers (and elements in clientel capitalism) who lease agriculture land and rent it to farmers.
5] Focus areas to ensure food security
Focusing on five prime areas can assist the government to improve the country’s food ecosystems, gain more control, and ensure food security for the nation (see figure 4):
If an item is easy to grow locally and is produced efficiently in Malaysia, subsidies and investments in technology can be pursued to substantially increase domestic production.
If, on the other hand, the item is not suitable for domestic production, Malaysia could instead focus on diversifying import sources and developing bilateral agreements with the top exporters.
[ Qatari 🇶🇦 Baladna is partnering with FGV and FELCRA to develop a climate-independent dairy farm in Malaysia. ]
A national food security agenda needs to adopt a multidimensional approach - rather than ministry-centric - to revamp the preceeding decades of the four Agricultural Policies in addressing food production and distribution strategies through the restructuring of our national food interconnectedness between food production, environmental sustainability, economics, entrepreneurship, rural development as well as research and development.
In a sense, rather than mere ministry-centric, a strategic food security programme should embrace the the quintuple helix approach where The State mobilises five subsystems (helices):
(1) education system,
(2) economic system,
(3) natural environment,
(4) civil society
(5) and the political system to
formulate a critical vision in not only articulating the objectives but also the inter-linkages in production, storage and distribution of vital food-secure materials.
To succeed in the introduction of a national food security programme, the country needs not only be able to initiate, conceptual-design and implement national priorities, but also adopt that cohesive national will to maintain the mission objectives, and be able to sustain the long-drive ahead with socio-economic adaptability to derive the viability of the shared goal with common wealth in a progressive nation.
Reference
Kearney, 18th.October 2022, Transforming Malaysia into a more food-secure nation
STORM, 30/01/2023
Financial Globalisation of Agribusiness