How ready is Malaysia for a global food crisis?

As a child, Mohamad Afifuddin Zahlan would follow his father down to the padi fields outside their house.

There, he would spend long hours sloshing through mud and emerge covered in leeches from his knees down.

But once he finished school, he stopped going down to the fields. Now, he and his three siblings are employed in the private sector and have neither the time nor the inclination to continue the agricultural tradition handed down from their grandfather to their father.

His father is 70 years old and his days of working in the fields are long over. With no one left to help him, he has had no choice but to rent out the 12 acres of his land to others.

“If the crops are stricken by disease or pests, the returns are not worth it,” Afifuddin told MalaysiaNow. “It’s also difficult to find labourers.”

Afifuddin, who is in his 40s, is one in a generation of farmers’ children who no longer work the land.

His father inherited the 12 acres from his grandfather, who had divided his original 30 acres among his children before his death.

But a shrinking interest in farming among the younger generation is one of the obstacles in the way of self-sufficiency in the local agricultural sector.

Self-sufficiency refers to a country’s ability to produce enough food products to meet domestic needs.

The issue gained new currency following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which recently prompted the United Nations’ World Food Programme to warn of an impending global food crisis due to disruptions in production and exports.

In Malaysia, much of the country’s development took place during the first administration of Dr Mahathir Mohamad who was dubbed the “Father of Modernisation”. However, the focus was placed on the heavy industry, with less attention given to agriculture.

MalaysiaNow previously reported that structural issues related to food security such as land use policies and a failure to develop the padi industry were still hampering the country, resulting in a lack of interest among the younger generation in agricultural activities.

In light of the continuing war in Ukraine, the question is how prepared Malaysia is in terms of food security should the crisis persist.

For economist Geoffrey Williams, the answer might be “not enough”.

Williams, from Malaysia University of Science and Technology, said Malaysia still imports 60% of its food needs.

A 2019 breakdown shows that Malaysia only produced 46% of its vegetables, 70% of its rice, 61% of its fruits and 25% of its meat that year.

“A big part of the problem is the regulation of imports and the issuance of APs (approved permits) to import,” Williams said.

“Of course, we need to regulate quality, health and safety, but opening up and liberalising the food markets is essential for supply and prices to respond.”

There is also the matter of monopolies and cartels which further limit the domestic market, affecting staple foods such as rice and sugar and pushing prices higher than they should be.

For Williams, deregulating and opening up the food markets could help resolve this issue as well.

Chee Yoke Ling, executive director of international research and advocacy organisation Third World Network, agreed that Malaysia is not ready to face a food crisis on a global scale.

Speaking to MalaysiaNow, she said while the government should tackle the needs of domestic food production, land use and agricultural policies continue to favour commodity exports.

They also fail to appreciate the role of small-time farmers who provide rice, vegetables and fruits, she said.

“Where farmers are successful in even exporting their produce, we see more and more destruction of farm land for industrial parts and urban expansion,” she said.

“Just look at recent cases in Perak, where private developers were given state land that had been successfully farmed for decades but were bulldozed in a matter of days.”

The onset of the Covid-19 pandemic two years ago also exposed Malaysia’s weaknesses in food security as the movement control orders placed restrictions on the country’s supply chains.

Problems such as climate change have likewise affected global food production, with even countries that normally export food suspending exports to meet domestic needs.

Most recently, Indonesia banned the export of palm oil products due to domestic shortages, pushing vegetable oil prices to new highs.

Malaysia is the world’s second-largest exporter of palm oil after Indonesia, and this, too, has exacerbated its struggle for self-sufficiency as much of its land is used for plantations instead of staple crops such as rice.

Teresa Kok, a former primary industries minister, had proposed the planting of bamboo to replace oil palm.

But Williams said the soaring prices of palm oil would make it difficult to switch to any other crop at the moment.

“Malaysia has enough land for palm and agriculture, but the incentives in the agricultural industry are very poor due to the licensing, concessions and restrictions on market access,” he said.

“These must be fixed first instead of thinking about land use.”

Chee meanwhile said it would be a good idea to stop the use of land for oil palm in order to preserve the environment, forest and rain catchment areas.

“It is also a good idea to convert part of the existing plantation land for the growing of crops for food,” she said.

“It is equally important to stop destroying food production land for property development and industrial use that can be done elsewhere.”