HOW RICE INDUSTRY IN MALAYSIA TODAY?

RICE CULTIVATION IN MALAYSIA started long time ago as one of the important commodities by local. For me in Malaysia, rice is the third most important crop that was grown after oil palm and rubber. Rice (Oryza sativa) in Malaysia nowadays is planted twice (cropping seasons) annually in most granary area. The main season occurred with a humid weather (from Aug to Feb) is based on a non-irrigation-dependant system. However the off-season or so calle as dry weather occurred normally in Mac-July and it requires an irrigation system. Generally reported that the rice granaries are distributed across Peninsular Malaysia, Sabah and Sarawak. Some of the granary areas named as locally paddy are also known as (1) Muda Agricultural Development Authority (MADA) in Kedah, (2) Kemubu Agricultural Development Authority (KADA) in Kelantan, (3) North Terengganu Integrated Agriculture Development (KETARA) in Terengganu, (4) Project Barat Laut Selangor (PBLS) in Selangor, (5) Krian, in Perak (6) Seberang Perak in Perak (7) Seberang Perai located in Pulau Pinang (8) Kemasin in Kelantan (9) Rompin in Pahang (10) Kota Belud in Sabah and (11) Batang Lupar in Sarawak. Granaries are defined as rice farms with proper irrigation systems and land areas spanning more than 4,000 ha per area. Apart from these recognized granaries, there are 74 secondary granaries and 172 minor granaries distributed sporadically in Malaysia and contribute up to 28,441 and 47,653 hectares, respectively. In the Southeast Asian region, Malaysia has the smallest total rice planting area of 689,268 ha, of which two third of the total planting area is distributed in Peninsular Malaysia and the remainder is found in Sabah and Sarawak. Currently in Malaysia approximately 195,000 farmers are toiling up in rice cultivation and productivity. This article in "Anim Agro Technology" blog we share the rice industry in Malaysia.

In early 2019, Malaysia’s paddy and rice production stood at 2.9 and 1.88 million MT, respectively while the self-sufficiency level (SSL) was reported at 72.85% (MARDI, 2010). According to Khazanah Research Institute (2019), Malaysians consumed 80 kg of rice per person which equalled to 26% of the total caloric intake per day. On average each household spends RM44/month (USD$ 9.93) on rice. Both Sabah (RM73/ USD $16.50) and Perlis (RM13/USD$2.93) are ranked as states that spend the most and least on rice consumption in Malaysia respectively. Reported that the national SSL has now dipped slightly to 69% due to the looming pandemic which resulted in food supply chain disruption and increased consumption of staple food. While the population has increased to more than 32 million, rice production areas have remained relatively constant since the 1990s. Comparatively, for the SSL of neighboring countries within the Southeast Asia region are significantly greater in which in Indonesia their reported as SSL = 97%, The Philippines in which their SSL = 93% while for Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia have surplus production with their SSL up to a value more than 200% (Source: Khazanah Research Institute, 2019). Although rice production shows an annual growth of 1.6%, the small growth rate does not sufficiently meet the consumption need of the population. The national average rice yield hovers at 4.2 metric ton/ha while high-performing granaries such as IADA Barat Laut Selangor, IADA Pulau Pinang, IADA Ketara and MADA yield above 5.0 metric ton/ha, low-productivity granaries such as Kemasin, IADA Pekan and Rompin yield below 3.0 metric ton/ha. Kedah from 1960's as I know are the rice bowl of Malaysia as MADA contributes to half of the total paddy production of the nation. Thanks...

By,

M Anem,

Senior Agronomist,

Putrajaya,

Malaysia.

(August 2023)

Updated May 2025