FUTURE AGRICULTURE IN MALAYSIA (Part 6)

Malaysia has been very successful in developing the country through organized and focused economic development plans. Globally, Malaysia has been ranked sixth in 2014 on Ease of Doing Business, 20th in the Global Competitiveness Index (GCI) 2014- 2015, 33rd in the Global Innovation Index (GII) 2014 and 56th in the World Happiness Index (2013). These indicators have proven that Malaysia is capable to promote a new orientation of development focusing towards sustainability and inclusiveness. The development of a nation relies on its citizen’s wellbeing. One of the important factors of citizen’s wellbeing is food production. Food is the backbone of the society. Realising this, the Malaysian government has taken steps to ensure that there is enough food for its population. The emphasis is on self-sustainability. The agro-ecosystem management and agricultural planning has been revamped to ensure sustainability and to include green-friendly values and equitable and inclusiveness of all stake holders. Sustainable development must be inclusive enough to cater and address the population’s wider needs for food, feed, fuel, fibre, furniture, pharmaceuticals and felicity. Constraints such as high implementation cost, and pressing health and environmental concerns require governments to plan their agriculture development towards being trim, mean, focused, not wasteful, savvy, and compliant to the global environmental and health standards. Agro-ecosystem Management Challenges is a factor to be discussed. Malaysia is blessed with fertile soil and abundance of rain since it is located on the world tropical belt. However, to meet the agriculture development objectives Malaysia has to face and overcome social, economic and environmental challenges. This article in "Anim Agriculture Technology" I would like to share some basic information with all readers. 

(1) Opportunity in Economy

The World Business Council for Sustainable Development estimates the potential additional sustainability-related business opportunities will generate annual value of USD1.2 trillion from agriculture and food sector by 2050. Youth participation is crucial for the development of the agriculture sector. Opportunity to attract youth should be intensified as current statistic has shown increased interest - 15 percent of 826,000 agripreneurs are youth. The government has to create infrastructure and support system to encourage this development. For example, the establishment of Halal Hub to promote and produce halal food and standardization like MyGAP that helps to bring the agriculture produce into the more lucrative markets. Besides, there are a lot of future opportunities in agriculture across other sectors that could be explored, such as Agriculture cities and integration, and agriculture related industries such as tourism, education and construction.

(2) Technology in Economy
Although agricultural contribution to GDP declined over the years to 7.3 percent in 2010, current trends, technology and new initiative in this sector could provide opportunity for Malaysia’s economy. Opportunities from technology such as energy efficiency, low-emission energy supply, precision farming, and robotics and automation are a few examples to generate economic opportunity to Malaysia.

(a) Energy Efficiency

Energy inputs in agriculture sector are found in every stage of production – from applying chemicals (e.g. pesticides, fertilizers), to fuel tractors that harvest crops, to supplying electricity for animal housing facilities. Inefficiency in using these energy inputs would lead farmers to bear the high energy costs. Inefficiency would also create volatile energy market fluctuations that impact fertilizer costs.

(b) Low-Emission Energy Supply

Technology that helps reduce the impact on environment by shifting energy supply from fossil fuels to less polluting alternatives such as solar, wind, nuclear and hydropower for electricity generation or using biofuel as direct sources of energy.

By,
M Anem,
Senior Agronomist,
Room 1807, Imperial Heritage Hotel,
Bandar Hilir, Melaka,
Malaysia.
(19 RabiulAwal 1439H)