RICE INDUSTRY IN MALAYSIA - AN ANALYSIS (PART 6)

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 planting materials (GMO) 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 unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic, 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 improvement, governmental participation and contribution (approaches, policies and programs) and 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.

In paddy industry in which the resilience and soil health known as the key determinant to paddy and rice production include in Malaysia. It was because the rice productivity gain is driven by soil quality. Soil quality variables which include bulk density, organic carbon content, nutrient element content, soil porosity, soil aggregate stability index and others are key determinants of the overall rice growth performance and productivity. As I study previously in general the rice cultivation techniques are diversified crop cultivation pattern which integrates alternative upland crop planting via rotation has long been associated with soil quality improvement. In other case reported that there are no such standard methods of rice planting are practiced in Malaysia accordingly. Rice growing areas in Malaysia are distributed in a wide range of soil types include Organic clay, Brown clay, Jawa Series, Sedu Series, Bakau Series, Bernam Series, Serong Series and others. These soil types from DOA detailed soil report are varies by their unique rhizosphere microbiome and inherent nutrient composition. Reported that in high performing rice granaries such as Sekinchan in Sabak Bernam and Tanjung Karang disricts in which the soils are generally less acidic (pH 4-5) compared to low performing rice granaries (pH more that pH4.0). Reported also the soil acidity level increases with the oxidation of pyrite-bound sediments distributed mainly in the coastal plains of Malaysia. Acid-sulfate soil (ASS) contains pyrite (FeS2) which releases sulfuric acid upon oxidation. It is high in aluminium and iron content and deficit in phosphorus. Pyrite oxidation causes sulfuric acid drainage and dissolves the bioavailable iron for plant uptake. As a result, plant nutrition and subsequent growth and development are adversely affected. Agricultural ASSs are subjected to amelioration with basalt, ground magnesium, limestone and organic compounds as a soil pH corrective measure. Rice granaries distributed on ASS are treated using lime sources such as Ground Magnesium Limestone (GML), hydrated lime and liquid lime accordingly. Liming increases the cost of production as at least 4 mt of GML per ha is required for a decent production of 3.5 - 4.0 mt ha of rice under ASS system. The recommendation from Department of Agriculture known as RICE CHECKS guidance are widely use by more advance farmers in Malaysia. They are the group able to produce higher productivity paddy in granary area. 

Government of Malysia introduced the Malaysian Good Agriculture Practices (MyGAP) as part of the exercise. The sustainable agriculture and food safety are the cores of good agricultural practice (GAP). First mooted by FAO in 2003 this practice not only focuses on preserving the environment but also accounts for the welfare, safety and labour health. In Malaysia reported that the first certification scheme was constructed based on Malaysian Standard MS 1784:2005 Crop Commodities - Good Agriculture Practices (GAP) known as Good Practice Scheme of Malaysia (SALM) was drawn up by Department of Agriculture in 2002 that I was involved at that time in many series of preparation. Under rebranding measure as an early motion in which SALM certification has became MyGAP in 2013 (in which 'My' stand for Malaysia and GAP stand for Good Agriculture Practices). Later the farm that approved their certification after the evaluated process on the aspects of its environmental setting, verification of farm practices and safety of farm products, incorporating traceability and ensuring adequate workers’ welfare within the farm are significantly recognized. As the benchmark for MyGAP is against the international GAP certification scheme, it allows for Malaysian produce to penetrate into the global market and gain better recognition and acceptance. At early stage the numbers for paddy farms adopting this scheme is very low for the farmers being old and used to conventional farm practices are inept in precision farming or precise application of fertilizer inputs but today mthe number of certified MyGAp in Malaysia increase tremdously. The lack of incentive or very little incentive at that time in earlier stage to acquire farming mechanization had derailed the farmers. Based on a study on 80 paddy farmers at that time only 80% of them are practiced unsustainable paddy farming with a score of less than 40.0 on a scale of 0 -100, 2.5% in the range of intermediate sustainability with none of the farmers close to being sustainable. But today there are more alert fares ti gain MyGAP certification scheme especially on granary area. The result is an indication that farmers were not following the Paddy Check guideline and are using excessive fertilizer, pesticide. In other case nowadays farmers are receptive of sustainable agriculture as it compromises on profitability and maximizing productivity. Moreover, the lack of support for the certification was also due to the failure to differentiate myGAP and non-MyGAP rice. At the early stage in which the non-existent reward for good quality and safe rice produced in a sustainable manner had dampened not only the MyGAP practitioners but also discouraged other farmers from adopting the stringent guideline. But all is not doom and gloom later since recently more MyGAP rice grown in KETARA located Terengganu hit the market are successful. 

Good Agricultural Practice (MyGAP) has been introduced as a guide in implementing sustainable agriculture, which concerns the economy, environment, and society in producing high-quality food that is safe to be consumed. The number of paddy farming areas that have been certified with MyGAP is still low. Hence, this study aimed to investigate the challenges of implementing MyGAP among the paddy farmers and proposing relevant actions, using the Sekinchan paddy field as a case study. Qualitative techniques were conducted by observations in the fieldwork and the interviews with eight paddy farmers and two officers from the technical department. By using qualitative content analysis, six challenges associated with the implementation of MyGAP were identified such as (1) complexity of MyGAP certification system, (2) inadequate knowledge, (3) lack of pro-environment behaviour among paddy farmer, (4) ineffective communication, (5) lack of technology and (6) lack of monitoring and enforcement. This paper's suggested relevant recommendation to provide a platform for developing and improving policy and guidelines in MyGAP. From the findings, some recommendations are put forward in the pursuit of MyGAP in Sekinchan. The findings contributed to a better understanding of where attention should be directed, and which recommendations would better impact the implementation of MyGAP among the paddy farmers. In Malaysia, the government implemented free of charge the Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) certification program. However, the number of paddy farming areas that have been certified with MyGAP is still low. For example, in 2014, the number of farmers certified under MyGAP is still small and only increased about 0.3%, which 746 out of a total of 278,628 farmers. Simultaneously, the farm certification scheme is not a new scheme (IADA Barat Laut Selangor, n.d.; Standard Department of Malaysia, 2016). Instead, the concept of MyGAP is a re-branding of the previous certification schemes such as the Malaysian Farm Certification Scheme for Good Agriculture Practice (SALM). In the 11th Malaysia Plan (2015-2020) DOA is reported that until 2014, only 4.6% (3,585 farms out of 77,191 farms) complied with MyGAP (RMK-11, 2015). Most of the previous GAP study focuses mainly on GAP's implementation and effectiveness without discussing the challenges or reasons behind the poor implementation of MyGAP among farmers. Hence, this study investigates the challenges of implementing good agriculture practices (MyGAP) among the paddy farmers and proposing relevant actions, using Sekinchan as a case study. This study's practical contribution is a set of guidelines that have been compiled to identify where attention should be directed, and which recommendations would have a better impact on the implementation of MyGAP certification among the paddy farmers. 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, Anim Agro Technology and frontliners.com respectively...

By,

M Anem,

Putrajaya,

Malaysia.

(November 2023).

Updated December 2025.