opinion Like many concerned Malaysians, I worry sick about the impending rice crisis that is looming over our heads; I can’t imagine when inflation goes further up and there are food riots in the shops. The price of oil keeps soaring and is not expected to ease anytime soon; this means we can only expect the current speculation on commodities and oil to continue, further adding to the already robust demand in the world market.

So far the government has not announced any further details in averting this impending crisis except for a RM4 billion initiative, which includes developing the Limbang river estuary as a large-scale rice cultivation area in Sarawak.

There is a Chinese saying that goes, “far-away water does not help to put out the fire on our roof”. While the intention to bring development to Sarawak should be applauded; the nation however does not have the time nor the luxury to wait for a new area to be cleared, infrastructure set up and the ground be organised for production.

There exists easier and more readily available solution if only we care to work on them. Many Malaysians are yelling impatiently at the inertia of the authorities, “it is a crisis, stupid. Why are you not getting it?"

padi fields 230508 01 Farmers and rice traders in the country I spoke to worried that the ambitious plan of the government could end up in vain as there are serious questions whether the Limbang region is even suitable for rice planting. While no details of its feasibility has been made known to the public, we look to the report by the agriculture department that suggests that organic soils like peat pose severe limitations to agriculture.

In a recent article, Borneo Post observed: "Apparently, if soil conditions do present a challenge, then investors must be able to come up with innovative technology to deal with, for instance, rice cultivation on peat swamps, and make it economically viable."

There are two questions that the government ought to consider: first; are there vast tracks of suitable land in other parts of Malaysia that can be easily turned into productive fields; and second, why are we not focusing on low-hanging fruits, but go all the way to the marshy outback and pour billions of dollars to develop the infrastructure and destroy the ecosystem?

Focus on low-hanging fruits

To get to the root of the problem, for the past two weeks I have talked to rice traders, farmers and made several trips to rice farming areas in Peninsular Malaysia. Here is what I found from my ground research:

First, the government and the public at large must recognise that we are dealing with an impending crisis; which calls for a speedy solution. We can only continue to secure imports (at exorbitant prices – currently at US$1,000 per metric ton if we can secure supply). This is only for a limited period of time before our coffers ran out of money.

Imports should only be a temporary lifeline. We have to be operating in an emergency or crisis mode; i.e. mobilising whatever ready resources into speedy action. The public should not waste any food; and begin to make that a conscious effort. The government must focus on low-hanging fruits, strategic actions that get us quick results.

Second, achieving self-sufficiency in rice production is not an insurmountable task. If only we focus on the low-hanging fruits, look at critical areas where we can achieve the quickest results. I need some quick calculation as follows ( see chart ):

achieving self sufficiency in rice padi chart 230508

In the absence of the latest data, I made an estimate from the details released by the government. With 77 kg of rice consumption per capita, and a population of 24 million, Malaysia consumes some 1.848 million tons of rice. A ton of raw padi only yields 65% of white rice; hence we need 2.843 million tons of padi every year.

Malaysia is 70% self sufficient in rice production today; hence we produces some 1.990 million tons, with an average yield of 6 tons per hectare per crop; this works out to be 165,846 hectares under rice cultivation in the country.

Two ways to self-sufficiency

To speedily get to self-sufficiency; there are two ways:

rice Increase crop yield: To assist farmers in the existing fields to increase crop yield by 2 tons per crop, that makes for 4 tons in a year. My field research showed that the farmers in the Sekinchan area in Selangor could average 10 to 12 tons of padi harvest per crop; this is close to twice the national average.

Hence if focus effort on the existing farmers, providing more incentives and support to help them increase yield, we can very quickly resolve this crisis, after all a rice crop only takes three to four months to produce.

We are heartened to note that the Agriculture Minister Mustapa Mohamed has made a field visit to Sekinchan recently; hopefully what he learnt from the field will be integrated into the national solution.

Additional land for growing padi: Open up additional land to make up for the shortfall needed for domestic self-sufficiency.

padi fields 230508 02 Based on the above calculation, if (1) can be achieved, the country would only need to open up additional acreage of 15,795 hectares, and these can be easily found in Perak, Kelantan and Terengganu. The irrigation and other infrastructure work would only costs some RM500 million to build, and if the work is being spread out; they can be done speedily to start production as early as January 2009.

The nation can achieve self-sufficiency state by state; all state governments are instructed to put this matter as a priority and work on achieving self-sufficiency on a state level first. Instead of working through Bernas alone, all state governments should be mobilised and rewarded for this effort.

There are some structural problems currently existing in the rice production sector in the country, which the government can take the opportunity to review:

1. Many fields are idle and not been farmed. The state government could not trace who the owners are. Some fields are divided into lots; and because many of the neighbours are not farming, the lone farmer who only worked on a few plots end up sacrificing his crop as food for the rodents and insects in the region because they cannot find food elsewhere!

The state governments ought to find a way to contact these idle landowners who have been given the lot; and turn them into productive lots as soon as possible. No farmer can produce high yield if his surrounding fields are not as productive as his!

2. There are many farmers who are interested to farm; they indeed work very hard on their small fields. These expertise can be fully utilised if we give them additional plots; the government can support them by renovating and improving on the existing infrastructure or by giving them TOL (temporary occupation licence) land status so they can be encouraged to do the pioneering work.

3. Improving on the support price of grain is an important step. Due to competition from private millers; Bernas Nasional Berhad, the country’s sole (but privatised) rice management agency has now increased to the support price to between RM1,000 to RM1,450 per metric ton. This is a vast improvement from the old support price of RM700 to 900 before.

rice paddy padi beras from thailand in malaysia 190307 With the retail price of local rice at RM2.80, there is adequate margin for Bernas to pass the incentive back to those who do the hard work in the fields. At some opportune time, review the present mechanism led by Bernas to see if a single privatised monopoly in the distribution of rice for the country serves the nation interest.

Compared to the insurmountable problem of rising energy prices, achieving self-sufficiency in rice production poses less challenge. However it takes a mindset of going down to the ground to understand where the money and effort should be best channeled to get the maximum results in the shortest time possible. I wish to repeat my call to the authorities; we are in a crisis; hence we cannot afford the time and grandeur of a mega-project.

In fact, I invite the Agriculture Ministry to work on my set of numbers above, and confirm whether these calculations matches theirs. If these numbers are true, with an annual subsidy of RM800 million and an additional infrastructure outlay of RM315 million, a total of RM1.14 billion, we could provide relief to this impending crisis. I stand corrected if my computation is erroneous.

FOONG WAI FONG is director of Megatrends Asia and best selling author of Megatrends Asia (with John Naisbitt), We have to talk Mr Prime Minister, The New Asian Way , and Culture i s Good Business . Email: waifonog@get-ed.com.

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