RICE INDUSTRY IN MALAYSIA - AN ANALYSIS (PART 2)

 RICE (Oryza sativa) is an important staple food for nearly half the world’s population. 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. 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 paddy 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. later 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.

Reported in Malaysia for the year in 2019 paddy and rice production as many as at 2.9 million mt (total for paddy yield) and 1.88 million mt (as processed rice) respectively while the self-sufficiency level (SSL) was reported at 72.85%. According to the Ministry of Agriculture Malaysia reported that Malaysians consumed about 80 kg of rice per person in which equivalent to 26% of the total calorie intake per day. This was an average in which each household need to spend RM44/month (USD9.93) on rice at that time but almost doubled in 2023 recently du to high price. Reported by a KRI consultant in which both Sabah (RM73/USD16.50) and Perlis (RM13/ USD2.93) are ranked as states that spend the most and least on rice consumption in that time.  The ministry strategies in Dasar Agro Makanan Negara (DAN) had mention about how to improve the paddy industry 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 an increase of consumption of staple food. On other factor the population has increased to more than 32 million (this may include millions of foreigners as industrial workers) in which the rice production areas have remained relatively constant since the 1990s. No new paddy growing additional area to grow paddy, but more paddy area has changed to urbanization and change to other commodities mostly to oil palm and short-term crops. Please link to my article how the issue of paddy area converted to oil palam in Malaysia (Click Here). Ministry responsible such as MOA check the SSL of neighboring countries within the Southeast Asia region that reported are significantly greater such as in Indonesia (SSL about 97%), The Philippines (SSL about 93%) and in Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia reported they have surplus production (SSL more than 200%) in 2019. Although rice production shows an annual growth of 1.6% in which the small growth rate does not sufficiently meet the consumption need of the population. The national average rice yield hovers at 4.2 ton/ha while high-performing granaries such as IADA Barat Laut Selangor, IADA Pulau Pinang, IADA Ketara and MADA yield above 5.0 ton/ha, low-productivity granaries such as Kemasin, IADA Pekan and Rompin yield below 3.0 ton/ha (Ministry of Agriculture, 2016). Kedah is the rice bowl of Malaysia as MADA contributes to half of the total paddy production of the nation. Sekinchan paddy farmers in Selangor reported produce more than 10 mt/hectare for more than 10 years ago respectively. 

It was important to lookback the rice history also as trading partners and governmental policies in Malaysia in this article. For history in which before independence (1957) the food policies in Malaysia were implemented to serve the colonial masters who focused mainly on plantation crops (that was oil palm, rubber and cacao) for export and foreign investments. There were no support programs dedicated to infrastructure development also for research and development. As the SSL of rice was below 50% at that time the tuber crop include cassava or tapioca was the main source of carbohydrates for the poor and moat rurl areas. later during post-independence in which the new agency known as Malaysian Agricultural Research and Development Institute (MARDI) was established to lead research on agriculture which included rice and paddy. Later reported in 1971 the new other agency known National Board of Paddy and Rice (LPN) was formed to oversee the national rice supply and farmers’ welfare. The first notable milestone for the paddy industry was the construction of Muda Irrigation Project (1966 -1970) which supplied water for the rice granaries in Kedah and Perlis. Then in 1994 reported that LPN was corporatized to form another new wing known agency Padiberas Nasional Berhad (BERNAS) as the nation’s single rice gatekeeper. However later the rice crisis in the 1970s set the tone for a blanket shield on rice production. After that the heavy subsidies, market control, guaranteed minimum price (GMP) for farmers, fixed retail ceiling price and import monopoly by BERNAS were triggered by this crisis but not now when it was debut in parliament for many years. Historically the monopoly by the gatekeeper suppressed open market practices. In 1988 then the World Bank raised a red flag on Malaysia’s market intervention approach which heavily caters for subsidies that burdens the economy and hence labelled the rice industry as both non-viable and reported unsustainable. The higher spending on the cost of production did not necessarily translate into higher productivity. According to other studies in which if fertilizer subsidy is removed, later the cost of production will increase but the rice productivity is projected to drop. Though many criticize these government policies from beginning BERNAS as the guardian of the country’s rice stockpile had continuously protected the national rice sector against world market price fluctuations. Further, BERNAS keeps rice imports checked while ensuring that the farmers always have a buyer even when the demand is low. BERNAS is committed at sustaining a sufficient rice stockpile for the entire nation over a course of 45 days of buffering period. If indeed the domestic production drops, MoU is in place with Thailand and Vietnam as the next layer of the insulation. 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. Source: NSTP, Anim Agro Technology and frontliners.com respectively. Thanks....

By,

M Anem,

Putrajaya,

Malaysia.

(November 2023).

Updated November 2025.