RICE (Oryza sativa) is an important staple food for nearly half the world’s population. In Malaysia, rice and paddy cultivation kickstarted in the early 60s with small-scale farming in which later expanded by leaps and bounds before emerging as the country’s utmost important food crop. Over the decades, Malaysian rice production system has been suffering from various challenges which include extreme weather conditions, poor soil fertility and nutrient management, farmers’ lack of awareness and knowledge, hesitancy against genetically-modified crop (GMO) planting materials and poor deployment of technology. The national rice production and consumption, simply measured as self-sufficiency status staggers in between 67 and 70%. The Southeast Asia region has been an important rice export trader with Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia, among the biggest rice-producing nations. Food security, under the context of sustaining international rice trading ties, succumbs to functional fluctuations of global supply chains. During the COVID-19 pandemic reported that the containment period during the outbreak led to significant disruptions to the food production chain. During the early phase of the pandemic, Malaysia experienced a volatile rice import trend, facing difficulty to secure a committed rice trading partner. In this review, we discuss the trajectory of the rice and paddy industry in Malaysia since its inception, lab-to-field translated breeding strategies adopted for rice yield for more variety improvement, governmental participation and their contribution (approaches, policies and programs) and many technologies in use for rice production. Further, relevant cutting-edge technologies, agricultural methods and practices catered for modern Malaysian rice farming, with opportunities to improve and enhance crop health and resilience are included. The review findings inform new rice agricultural practices, suggest research directions toward sustainable rice farming and provide a comprehensive knowledge base to accelerate innovation, technology diffusion and technology adoption for a resilient rice production system in Malaysia. I published more than 100 article on rice industry in my blog for the past 15 years. This article in "Anim Agriculture Technology" I want to discuss about an analysis of rice industry in Malaysia related to governance and policies, research trends, technology adoption and resilience for readings.
The most planted paddy variety grown by farmers depend on many factors and variety duration sustainability. reported during early years of paddy commercialization ini Malaysia the early variety such as Malinja, Mahsuri and Bahagia were at time released by DOA before the establishment of MARDI were bred under the International Rice Commission program that time. Selection of genotypes was done in farmers’ field and progressed further at the Rice Research Centre in Cuttack in India respectively in which the crossing and breeding of the F1 generation. The phenotypic evaluation of the F2 - F7 generations was conducted in Malaysia before the varieties were released. Since transplanting and harvesting were done manually, these varieties were tall (ease the shattering process) and showed a total of 140 average days to reach maturity. Today problem such as lodging was a serious concern among the local farmers. MARDI embarked on some breeding for shorter varieties with an average culm height of 100 -115 cm. Besides lodging reported that a host of plant diseases started cropping up such as with blast, bacterial leaf blight, tungro and brown planthopper, to name a few. In 1979, the most preferred rice varieties, both Malinja and Mahsuri severely succumbed to panicle blast. In response to the undesirable yield lost, MARDI released the first blast resistant variety (Sekencang or MR7) against P. oryzae. Later on various other blast resistant varieties emerged as preferred planting materials among the local farmers namely, MR 232, MR 253 and MR 263. These varieties were superior than the previously released varieties and were high yielding too. From 1990 to 2006, the focus of research and development activities shifted into selecting semi dwarf plants with an average culm height of 60 - 90 cm. The ultimate goal was to limit lodging with shorter plants. Reported that variety MR84 and MR219 with satisfying plant height and yield potential of 6 - 8 t/ha were released as very popular variety grown in Malaysia. For the record as long as from 1984 till 2002 in which about 97% of rice granaries in Malaysia were planted with MR84. After which paddy variety known as MR84 was displaced by MR219 which then gained preference as popular planting variety among local farmers, and it was reigning for over last 20 years. Over time reported that rice breeding strategies gained significant momentum as evident through manipulation of various traits of interest: erect leaves, erect tillers, low tillering capacity, high germination rate, shorter plant height, better rooting structure and panicle-weight type rather than panicle-number type. Among the white rice varieties, the following were successfully bred as part of the high yielding rice production system such as MR253, MR263, MR269, MR284, MR303. Few of these varieties were able to grow on marginal land, and conferred foliar and panicle blast resistant.
Later in 1999 an aromatic rice MRQ50 was released to expand the rice niche market which was dominated by white rice. Progressing down the road, Mas Wangi (MRQ74) in which it resembled premium rice known as Basmathi ant itwas released thereafter. Comparatively variety known as Mas Wangi displayed a much lower glycemic index and high GABA content than MRQ50. On the other hand MRQ76 (released in 2012) was akin to Jasmine rice. The pioneering glutinous rice varieties were Masria and Pulut Malaysia1 which were released in the 1970s whereas PH9 released in 1990 remained as the only black glutinous rice released in Malaysia. For me during that period knows that while most varieties focused on disease resistance and high yielding, two Clearfield rice varieties namely MR220CL1 and MR220CL2 were released in 2010 to address weedy rice introgression. Clearfield rice varieties were tolerant to the toxic herbicide (imidazolinone) and displayed high yield at 6–9.5 ton/ha. Next, to address the issue of water shortage, an aerobic rice variety, MRIA1 that consume 50% less water was released. While all the rice varieties released by MARDI were pure inbred lines that were initially crossed with two or more different varieties followed by selection of self-pollinating generations till uniform population plants are produced, hybrid rice is basically the F1 progeny. The first 100% local hybrid rice Kadaria 1 developed based on cytoplasmic male sterility was the result of 7–8 years of intensive research and 21 seasons of multi-location trials. F1 progenies display heterosis or hybrid vigor whereby a cross of two very genetically distant parents will produce offsprings that are far superior especially in yield. Reported in which during trials this hybrid rice was capable of producing 15 - 20% more rice in moderately fertile granaries. In a pioneering trial at KADA, Kadaria (MR27) are managed to double the production, from 4 ton/ha to 8 ton/ha. It was predicted that this hybrid rice could yield up to 10 ton/ha in BLS granary.
While MARDI was mandated to lead the national rice breeding R&D, a couple of public universities joined the initiative to secure food security through the generous funding support offered by MOSTI and MOHE. Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) through funding from LRGS for Food Security released 2 rice varieties, namely PadiU Putra 1 and PadiU Putra 2 in 2017. The former is resistant to blast disease and has a yield potential of 12 mtn/ha. It is the product of marker-assisted backcross breeding whereby broad-spectrum blast resistance genes (Piz, Pi2 and Pi9) were introgressed from local resistant rice variety (Pongsu Seribu 1) into high-yielding but highly blast-susceptible (MR219). The rice cultivar MR219 was used as the recurrent parent, and Pongsu Seribu 1 was used as the donor. As for PadiU Putra 2, a submergence-tolerant rice variety which could withstand flood, it was developed through marker-assisted backcrossing method. MR219 was used as the recurrent parent while Swarna-Sub1 which possessed the trait for submergence tolerance was the donor; Sub1 gene is the gene for submergence tolerance. This article has eight (8) segments for discussion on rice industry in Malaysia related to governance and policies, research trends, technology adoption and resilience for readings. Thanks. Source: NSTP, blog Anim Agro Technology and frontliners.com respectively. M Anem,
Putrajaya,
Malaysia.
(November 2023).
Updated by November 2025.
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