FUTURE AGRICULTURE IN MALAYSIA (Part 3)

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. 

The Way Forward in Agro-ecosystem Management
The World Economic Forum’s new vision for agriculture establishes three goals: (i) Food security, (ii) environment sustainability, and (iii) economic opportunity; and sets specific decade-by-decade milestones for each goal. Malaysia gives full consideration on all the issues and challenges in planning its agriculture development.

(i) Food security Food security requires increased agricultural production, better food distribution, reduced food waste, improved access to and participation in the global food system by the poor, and consumer education to promote healthy food choices. The vision clearly states that the ideal of food security is to meet nutritional needs while providing affordable food choices.

Issues and challenges in Food Security Demographic – By 2050, it is estimated that 60 percent more calories are needed to feed the projected 9 billion world population. The population of Malaysia at that particular time is estimated to be 43 million. History has proven that lack of food production due to inefficiency in agriculture management caused 950 million world populations to face hunger during the food crisis of 2012.

Managing agricultural yield has been identified as one of the major constraints that need innovative approaches in order to achieve food security. Maintaining agriculture yield required the ability to overcome changing climate. Climate change can reduce agricultural yield up to 20 percent in many areas of the world, and this gives serious impact to food production.

Lack of skilled workers also affects agriculture production as it creates inefficiency in managing agriculture yield.

Managing food waste – The average food wastage in Malaysia was 450 tonnes a day in 2009. The amount increased to 15,000 tonne a day in 2013.

Food waste is a global issue. It has been estimated that 24 percent calories of food produced for people are not consumed. This type of wastage can be avoided if the management of food distribution is done in a proper and effective way.

By,

M Anem,

Senior Agronomist,

Room 1807, Imperial Heritage Hotel,

Bandar Hilir, Melaka,

Malaysia.

(19 RabiulAwal 1439H)