RICE INDUSTRY IN MALAYSIA - AN ANALYSIS (PART 1)

RICE (Oryza sativa) is an important staple food for nearly half the world’s population in which 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. Reported that 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 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. Again, 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.

The rice industry in many countries started few hundred years ago as an important commodity. By the way I visited to International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) twice to know closer about their activities in paddy industry. According to them did report that more than a billion people around the world rely on rice cultivation for subsistence and livelihood. In developing countries, rice farming is the main source of income for about 200 million households. Feeding more than 3.5 billion people in which rice is the second most important food crop as it is relatively cheap, nutritious and fulfils the average calorie requirement of an individual. Besides that, reported that rice provides a significant portion of dietary protein for about 520 million people living in poverty in Asia. Globally, rice is grown in over 100 countries encompassing about 162.06 million hectares with an annual production of 495.78 million tonnes of milled rice (715 million tons of paddy rice). In the region of Asia and sub-Saharan Africa normally the rice is mostly grown on small farms stretching between 0.5 and 3 ha while in others such as Australia, the USA and South American countries, the farms are much larger, at about 2 to 3 thousand acres as commercial activity. It is estimated that rice production must increase by 114 million metric ton by 2035 in parallel with the expected population growth. Under this context, rice production intensification with minimal impact on natural resources and the engaging agro-systems sets a challenging call for food security). In Malaysia the Ministry of agriculture changed name recently to Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security to meet the need of food for the nation.

The agronomic practice and planting technology for the rice production systems are subjected to unique ecological and climatic conditions include as a rainfed and irrigated lowlands, uplands and deep-water areas. Major rice production comes from irrigated lowland rice system which accounts for 75% of the global rice yield (about 93 million ha). On the other hand recorded that another 19% of the global rice yield is produced from 52 million ha of rainfed lowlands. Rice occupies about 46% of the total irrigated area in Asia and receiving about 40 and 30% of the world’s irrigation water and the world’s developed freshwater resources, respectively. As two-thirds of the total rice production is grown under the irrigated system in which the rice production is increasingly constrained by water supply coupled with increasing pressure over water use (global water crisis) in irrigation-supported rice production systems.  The increasingly growing shortage of water resources will throw a spanner in the work of the rice production system until and unless farmers switch to sustainable methods for and or technologies which could significantly increase the plant water use efficiency. Due to the unlimited water supply in the certain area to irrigate lowland rice systems then reported that the average productivity of these granaries are much greater (about 5.4 t/ha) than rainfed lowland rice systems which yield around 1.0 to 2.5 t/ha. As for rainfed upland rice systems reported that the average yield fetches the lowest at 1 t/ha especially on remote area. However, in certain country the terrace paddy planting on highland produces good harvest (see photo above). Please read my article on technology for terrace paddy planting system in by clicking the link (Click Here) and (Click Here) respectively. Besides biotic and abiotic factors, social constraints and the use of local varieties by farmers that fail to respond favorably to environmental cues collectively result in low yield. In recent the study about aerobic rice and upland rice are normally established by direct seeding in non-puddled and non-flooded fields. However irrigated upland rice cultivation is somewhat very limited while aerobic rice is only grown on about 80,000 hectares in China and about 250,000 hectares in Brazil. In Malaysia there are no significant report of this technology applied.

Paddy industry in developing countries such as in Malaysia and Thailand reported that the heavily regulated and incentives such as subsidized rice industry is equated to food security and political stability. In 2016 from DOSM reported that Malaysians consumed 2.7 million mt of rice of which, 67% was produced locally while the balance was imported from neighboring countries such as from Thailand (jasmine rice and premium fragrant rice), India (Basmati rice and fragrant rice), Vietnam and Pakistan. Basmati rice is the most popular premium long grain rice for Nasii Beriyani, Nasi Dagang, Nasi Lemak and few others in Malaysia. However, in the international issue of the COVID-19 pandemic later that few countries include Thailand as known the biggest rice producer in the Southeast Asian region (reported their SSL or Self-sufficiency level more that 200%) had decided to discontinue its rice export to Malaysia. This issue makes a debut in Malaysia as it affects in the quest for national-level food security reinforcement and domestic consumption. Later the government has in turn offered India as an opportunity to become Malaysia’s biggest rice partner. But in 2023 India impost an extra export tax for rice later affects local rice supply in Malaysia. Malaysia’s rice supply is in mere jeopardy until or unless the nation hits 100% SSL status years to come. States like Sarawak and Sabah has plan to open new rice growing area for this purpose but yet to prepare the best irrigation infrastructure from federal government.  Reported that rice is amongst the most thinly traded crop worldwide so that the country may not be sworn with a stable import rice supply under the umbrella of adverse environmental challenges and crises. Rice growing systems in Peninsular Malaysia are classified as high yield about almost more that 4 mt/ha and low less than 4 mt/ha respectively. The performing granaries and the yield differences among them are strongly influenced by farming practices, climate, pest and pathogen, soil native fertility and nutrient management. In Sekinchan Selangor growing paddy area reported produces the highest reported productivity more than 8 - 10 mt/ha. The rice and paddy industry in Malaysia is explored thoroughly, particularly on key aspects such as research trends and initiatives so that most farmers perception of technology adoption and governance and policy are improving. In my observation the rice productivity constraints are highlighted and discussed along with realistic improvement strategies planned.

The rice growing area in Malaysia mostly under the8 main granary area in Peninsular Malaysia.  Rice cultivation in Malaysia is the third most important crop after Oil palm (Elaeis guineensis) and Rubber (Hevea brazilliensis). From my own observation in which Coconut (Cocos nucifera) are the fourth important for fresh consumption and processing. Normally rice is planted twice a year (follow the cropping seasons) known as Main Season and Off-Season. The main season growing activity are in the humid weather from August to February each year with enough water supply either at granary area or non-granary area, However for Off Season the period of growing paddy normally on on-dependent system from March to July respectively. Most rice granaries are located across Peninsular Malaysia and onw in Sabah and Sarawak. The largest and oldest granary area known as Muda Agricultural Development Authority (MADA) in Kedah followed bya Kemubu Agricultural Development Authority (KADA) in Kelantan. Other granary area known as  North Terengganu Integrated Agriculture Development or IADA KETARA in Terengganu, IADA Barat Laut Selangor (PBLS) in Selangor, IADA Krian and IADA Seberang Perak in Perak. In Penang there are IADA Seberang Perai, IADA Kemasin in Kelantan, IADA Rompin in Pahang, IADA Kota Belud in Sabah and also IADA Batang Lupar in Sarawak. All the agencies are under the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security control. Please refer to my article (Click here) for more information. The simplest definition of granaries are an area of rice farms with proper irrigation systems and land areas spanning more than 4,000 ha. However from my knowledge during my tenure in the Department of Agriculture Malaysia, 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 about 690,000 ha of which two third of the total planting area is distributed in Peninsular Malaysia and the remainder is found in Sabah and Sarawak. 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 oon Nov 2025.