MALAYSIA - TALK ABOUT RICE INDUSTRY

Our Rice industry in Malaysia considered an important sector by government. In 2016, Malaysia’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was RM1,196.4b, whereby the agriculture, forestry and fisheries sectors contributed only RM106.5 billion (8.9%)16. Within agriculture, palm oil was the biggest contributor at RM41.9 billion (40.2%), while paddy contributed only RM2.4billion (2.3%). Indeed, palm oil has always been a bigger contributor to the national GDP and this can be seen over time, as the oil palm harvested area has increased tremendously while the paddy harvested area remained relatively constant.

Despite the paddy and rice industry having a small contribution towards the nation’s GDP, it has garnered much interest from policymakers given its complex relationship with food security, culture and socio-economic factors. This is motivated by the increasing national demand for rice at the back of a constant size of the harvested area. In fact, the OECD-FAO Agricultural Outlook report projected a widening gap between Malaysia’s production and consumption of rice. For domestic paddy production, Malaysia relies primarily on ten key granary areas for its supply of paddy. In 2016, the nation produced a total of 2.7m MT of paddy. Out of this, 2.0m MT or 74.1% of the total paddy produced was from the granary areas. Muda Argricultural Development Authority (MADA), in the Northern Peninsular of Malaysia, produced about 38.8% of the total national paddy production and is known as the ‘Rice Bowl’ of the nation, followed by Kemubu Agricultural Development Authority (KADA) at 9.1% and Integrated Agricultural Development Area (IADA) Barat Laut Selangor (BLS) at 8.1%. Given the differences in their locations (different environmental conditions), farm practices and various other factors, these granary areas have different levels of farm yield. The national average yield is around 4.0 MT/Ha with high performing areas such as IADA Barat Laut Selangor, IADA Pulau Pinang, IADA Ketara and MADA, having yields above 5.0 MT/Ha. On the contrary, granaries such as IADA Pekan and Rompin are among the low yield producers, with yields below 3.0 MT/Ha. Thanks.

By,

M Anem,

Senior Agronomist,

Taman Cendana, Bukit Beruang,

Melaka, Malaysia.

(30 Syaaban 1440H).