Malaysia's Food Security Robustness On Upward Trend Since 2000: RBI

By Massita Ahmad SINGAPORE, June 30 (Bernama) -- Malaysia's overall food security robustness has been on the upward trend since 2000, showing progress in improving the robustness of the systems that underpin food security in the country, says the Rice Bowl Index (RBI). The latest RBI report finds Malaysia performing above the threshold for the composite index as well as all four performance rubrics -- Policy & Trade, Farm-Level, Environmental, and Demand & Price. "While these are complex factors to measure, it is important to remember that they are interlinked and are all part of an ecosystem which will determine the overall food security robustness in a country," said RBI Board Member Marcel van Doremaele in an email interview with Bernama. van Doremaele acknowledged that Malaysia's New Economic Model (NEM) recognises agriculture's percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is decreasing as are the number of people employed in the sector, and has therefore proposed measures to increase agricultural innovation and productivity. "Implementing these measures will be crucial to ensuring food security in Malaysia as the country continues to move towards becoming a high-income economy," said van Doremaele, who is also the Rabobank Singapore Chief Executive Officer. On a more macro level, Asia-Pacific has become more conducive to food security robustness over the years by enabling freer trade of food throughout the region. As a result, there has been a substantial improvement in the robustness of food security for countries in the region including Malaysia, he said. "We also need to remember that food security robustness does not only depend on government agendas and policies alone. There are strong interdependencies between the government, the environment, farmers as well as consumers which will contribute to a country's overall food security robustness," he said. To a question, he said mitigating the impact of climate change will be an important factor in Malaysia's efforts to maintain a robust food security system, adding the country has invested in biotechnology to improve crop yields and increase crops' resistance to drought. Through the adoption of bio-technologies such as new seed varieties, new nano-fertilisers, improved irrigation and larger-scale farm mechanisation, Malaysia aims to increase paddy yield to 8.0 metric tonne (MT) per hectare (ha) by 2020 from the current 5.0 MT per ha. van Doremaele said Malaysia has a score of 3.6/5 for the World Bank Logistics Performance Index, lower than Japan's 3.9/5 and Australia's 3.8/5. "Improving supply chain effectiveness and logistics infrastructure, especially in terms of logistics and storage for food, would improve Malaysia's robustness in food security. "As rice is a time-sensitive food, a reliable supply chain is an important factor. The longer lead time to get the rice from farm to mill will produce inferior quality rice and loss in market value. "Therefore, reducing the lead times in getting the paddy from farm to mill by improving the country's transportation and storage infrastructure will reduce post-harvest losses and improve the quality of the rice," he said. van Doremaele said improvements in infrastructure for transportation and storage of food will further benefit Malaysia. Malaysia's Policy and Trade factor, one of the enabler factors of food security, will also be enhanced, he said. For Malaysia to increase its RBI scores through improving the effectiveness of its supply chain, the process can start from the farm level by having better machinery and water irrigation systems, up to the governmental policy level by providing infrastructure in the form of better roads and accessibility to these farms. For a country to improve its effectiveness, there will need to be a concerted effort from all stakeholders in the supply chain, he said. --BERNAMA