GRAIN CORN IN MALAYSIA - A REPORT

RECENTLY a report regarding the growing of grain corn was an important strategies to reduce the importation and high poultry issues. Thee report says that Malaysia has to step up the production of corn as the nation spends RM3.09 billion a year to import grain corn as said by a spokesman at the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industries (MAFI). He said the amount spent annually to import grain corn in which served as the main source of animal feed formulation had been seen increasing by 10 per cent every year. The dependency on the imported corn has reached almost 100 per cent and creating risk and instability to the national livestock industry. The demand for grain corn alone is increasing globally and is expected to double by the year 2050. Our challenge is to increase the corn production to meet future demand lies on research and development (R&D), governance and policy implementation. MAFI said the increased prices of chickens and eggs lately were closely related to the cost of buying grain corn for animal feed. The government targeted to produce 1.44 million metric tonnes of grain corn, from 80,000 hectares, by the year 2032 despite the challenges of the global situation that are increasingly competitive, such as free trade, climate change and sustainable development goals. According to a MARDI report in which shared experience in the potential for grain corn in Malaysia, the quality of the grain corn planted in Seberang Perai, Pulau Pinang and few other trial location was better compared to the imported grain corn. Studies on its nutrient composition and the growth performance of local broilers has shown no significant difference compared to the imported ones.  

Recently reported that the shortage of chicken feed, namely maize in Brazil is among the causes of the substantial hike in the price of the goods, said the Deputy Agriculture and Food Industries (MAFI) at Putrajaya. They said government was confident the price of chicken would go down after the Covid-19 pandemic eased because the issue was the price of chicken feed. MAFI did not raise the price of chicken feed and it is the international price from Brazil in which is facing a shortage of maize and we are importing maize from there.  Hence, when there is a rise in global demand and the prices of chicken feed and chicken in all countries go up and it is not just us. The price of chicken in Jordan is about RM18 a kilogramme. The hike in other countries is much worse than us and their governments can’t afford to give subsidy. Malaysia was among the countries which provided subsidies to the people in which after the Covid-19 pandemic took place and when the country was hit by an extraordinary flood recently in many states as it could still afford to do so. Many other countries give up because they cannot afford to provide assistance to the people. Thanks...

By,

M Anem,

Malacca,

Malaysia.

(March 2022).