RICE INDUSTRY IN MALAYSIA - AN ANALYSIS (PART 8)

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 (GMO) 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. During the covid pandemic outbreak 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.

Paddy planting technology improved for higher productivity for more people to consume in years to come. In the future prospective and opportunities toward crop improvement and greater productivity there should more innovation to be done. In Malaysia the rice farmers are mainly older adults in their 50s and 60s and data shows that the young generation (age less than 40 years) participation for paddy cultivation is insignificant as they represent less than 17% of the total farmers group population. Back to the survey shown that the literacy wise in which most farmers aged 60 and above had received up to secondary schooling only. These farmers are comfortable with easy handling tools such as straw cutter, weeding machine and ploughing machine catered at the production level. In general, the utilization of farming tools remains traditional, and no apparent application of high-end technology had been practiced. Since most of these farmers belong to the small-scale rice farming group with low buying power normally as a practice they are highly dependent on the incentives and subsidies provided by the federal government. Hence, only large-scale rice farm owners with higher buying power are keen in purchasing and owning modern equipment such aa teh harvester machine and few others. In the survey by ministry conducted in the MADA rice granary area found that 65% of the total respondent for rice farmers reported as above 51 years old showed positive acceptance to technology despite noting the difficult handling procedure. This may cause the undeniably of the technology carries a toll on the cost of production. As for the precision rice agriculture by agency able to offer various technologies for land such as the levelling systems, seed sowing coupled with conversion rate, yield monitoring and early warning system and fertilization technology package. From my observation eih DOA reports that the technology developed for land levelling technology package and variable rate seedling which costs RM225/ha (USD$50.50) at that time but now increase accordingly in 2023. Some of the paddy farmers with fairly good acceptance to precision technologies but in 2023 the rising cost of production is a big stumbling block crossing into their profit margin especially after Russia-Ukraine War, Palestine -Israel War and pasca covid91 pandemic. Reported for inputs such as chemical fertilizers and pesticide increase up to 150% since 2022 respectively. Please read my article regarding this issue by link to this (Click Here) and (Click Here).

The important of rice as a staple food in Malaysia was a non-sense when the price hike from RM2.60 per kilogram as controlled item to more that doble in middle 2023 (for imported rice). May be Malaysia can never escape from the controversy surrounding the use of chemical fertilizers as it was a global situation. The usage of chemical or inorganic fertilizer is widespread and common for the cost-effective production of agricultural crops. It ensures bountiful harvests at affordable costs but at the expense of human health and our ecosystem. Besides, rice farming is highly polluting since hundreds of millions of tons of rice husk and straw are produced along the cycle. The open burning of these wastes leads to air pollution and emission of greenhouse gases (GHGs) mainly due to incomplete combustion. Reported that may be a paradigm shift to a greener agricultural practice is needed to ensure sustainability and clean environment. As the country moves toward developed status, green fertilizers and nanotechnology offer potential solution for sustainable agriculture. The utilization of nanomaterials for precision agriculture will cut on nutrient losses during fertilization and reduce the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides by controlled release of nutrients, fertilizers and pesticides while elevating productivity. Circular economy promotes the shift toward sustainable waste management and hence, to use the waste products of paddy farming, such as the rice husk is commendable since this practice of value creation will indirectly cut on carbon footprint while embracing multiple SDGs. The steering away of chemical fertilizer will ensure not only a cleaner food chain but will put waste material into beneficial agriculture input to enhance productivity.
 

This article discussed a long way ti identify the long history of Malaysian rice industry since farming was established at the pre-independence era. In the 1960’s, soils in Peninsular Malaysia were ranked amongst the most superior quality in terms of organic matter factor. The swampy condition of west coast facilitated accumulation of soil organic matter (SOM). Long standing research on improved rice planting materials are primarily conducted using traditional breeding program. Government policy and support for a productive rice system is most evident through the implementation of Paddy Production Incentive Schemes and Guaranteed Minimum Price standardization under the paddy supply chain. Despite differences in environmental factors, mainly soil fertility, rice domestic trading has been serving equal in both high and low performing rice granaries. Farmers (for more than 50 years old) are the main actors of rice agricultural system; however, technology-enabled farming practices are least observed. On a global perspective, the rice industry in Malaysia fall behind in regard to yield and productivity as a result of unattended or widening gaps in the utilization of Genetically-Modified (GM) planting materials, nano fertilization and technology-driven farming practices. There is an urgent need to understand the GM-hesitancy culture among local farmers and educate them accordingly. Ultimately, farmers are the backbone support for rice research and development activities in Malaysia. It takes two hands to clap. For me maybe it takes effective farmer-researcher communication for meaningful laboratory to farm translational research and acceptance. 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.

(Created: November 2023).

Modified: 26 December 2025