IS MALAYSIA READY FOR RICE CRISIS?

TODAY THE RICE CRISIS in Malaysia became a hot issue. There are questions have been raised about the government's readiness to manage the supply of rice, as the import cost of the staple good rises in tandem with a global increase in prices which could add on to operating costs for restaurant and business owners. According to Malaysia Food Sovereignty Forum coordinator spokesman said it was unlikely that the problems with local food supply would resolve on their own.  Farmers are still selling their rice, so they cannot be accused of pleading low yields. What is happening is at the factory and retail levels in which the price of imported rise has risen to RM38 per 10kg while the price of local white rice has been capped at the retail level at a rate of RM2.60 per kg. They said an estimated the country's rice self-sufficiency level at about 65% and the market would need to have supply of at least the same percentage. They referred to claims of local rice being switched with sacks of imported rice in order to turn a profit. There are claim that the rice and padi regulatory department had also said that it would take 20% of the rice from each factory to be given to government-appointed parties to produce local rice. The customers are said to be buying too much rice then the purchases are limited. The inconsistency of these statements means something is going on. The issue at the global level in which India as the world's largest exporter of rice has banned exports due to the dry weather. In Southeast Asia meanwhile reportef that the Philippines has inked an agreement with Vietnam to buy rice from that country. On other report that the Indonesian President Joko Widodo has been proposed the purchase of rice from Cambodia, China and Bangladesh. And in Malaysia, Padiberas Nasional or Bernas, the only company granted a licence to import rice, announced a 36% increase in the price of imported rice from RM2,350 per metric tonne to RM3,200 per metric tonne effective this month. According to Fatimah Mohamed Arshad as a senior visiting fellow at Khazanah Research Institute had said that Malaysia would need to put diplomacy at centre-stage in order to guarantee its rice supply. Indonesia has already signed an agreement with India on the potential import of one million tonnes of rice as she said. Malaysia could approach nations like Pakistan, Myanmar, Brazil and Uganda for the supply of imported rice. Currently the import license granted to Bernas meant that it alone had the answers to import efforts. If we want supply, then we need to make an agreement when the price of rice is down. Importing rice at high prices goes against their corporate interests as this is the effect of privatisation. In other report an economist Adilah Zafirah had said that rice subsidies and price controls were only stopgap measures. She spoke that the problem would continue as long as cartels are not removed from the country's supply chain. Malaysia can achieve the local supply of rice to meet the people's needs, and it possible that one day we could export rice as well given our rich resources and the ongoing efforts to deal with the root problem of cartels. In Terengganu as an example they has good agricultural practices as well as a supply-chain model that could be replicated at the national level. This article in "Anim Agricuture Technology" P would like to discuss on either Malaysia is ready for rice crisis.

In other report 'Govt should have comprehensive action plan for rice issues, not adhoc action' was mentioned in nst.com.my recently. The government must come up with a comprehensive action plan to tackle the issue of local rice as adhoc actions are no longer suitable to ensure its adequacy. The comprehensive plan was to ensure Malaysians will always have food on their tables and it must include enforcement actions. There are reeports about the unresolved long standing and difficulty in getting local rice supplies in the market had led to people making long queues at the Federal Agricultural Marketing Authority to make purchases. This has never happened before in the country in which worrying as rice is the staple food of the people. The report urged a stricter and holistic enforcement action is needed to ensure that there is no room for anyone to manipulate the local rice supply chain, aside from increasing the country's rice stockpile as well as expanding the nation's food material production. The current adhoc actions are insufficient to guarantee the food supply is always enough and can be bought at affordable prices by the citizen. This amid the country's high reliance on imported food materials and the lack of food production in countries affected by climate change which will affect the country's food supplies. As reported based on the Department of Statistics Supply and Utilisation Accounts Selected Agricultural Commodities 2018-2022 in which Malaysia needs 2.68 million tonnes of rice annually, of which 1.11 million tonnes are imported. It meant that the country was dependent on 40 per cent of imported rice from Thailand, Vietnam, India and Pakistan. The situation was compounded with the banning of rice exports, such as India, which is also facing a rice supply crisis. This makes Malaysia vulnerable to rice supply shortage risks and the instability of its prices due to global shortage or the constantly changing foreign exchange rates. Moreover, the country's rice production has been declining. In 2021 recorded that Malaysia able to produce 1.68 tonnes of rice but it declined to 1.57 million tonnes in 2022 in which the government must look into this seriously. This may be a start to a bigger crisis in the future. Many know that climate change has caused drought and flood in many countries that affected the food material production and that was including rice. Thanks...

By,

M Anim,

Melaka,

Malaysia.

(October 2023).