Malaysia Aims To Decrease Rice Import By 10 Pct By 2020

KUALA LUMPUR, July 13 (Bernama) -- Malaysia plans to reduce the import of rice by 10 per cent by 2020, Agriculture and Agro-based Industry Minister Noh Omar said on Thursday. Noh is confident this could be achieved with the local current padi output of 3.8 tonnes per hectare per year which meets 70 per cent of domestic demand. "If we could increase rice production yield by another 1.2 tonnes per hectare, I am confident we would able to meet a 80 per cent self-sufficiency level," he told reporters after officiating the 8th Malaysia International Agro-Bio Business Conference and The 13th Malaysian International Food and Beverages Trade Fair 2012 (MIFB 2012), here, Thursday. Earlier in his keynote address titled "Opportunities in Global Food Crisis", Noh said more than RM700 million has been allocated to develop 17 Entry Point Projects (EPPs) which have been identified under the Agriculture National Key Economic Areas (NKEA) under the Economic Transformation Plan (ETP). The EPP programmes have attracted the involvement of 83 companies that will contribute more than RM5 billion to the country's Gross National Income (GNI) and will offer 23,533 job openings, he said. "In addition, the private sector has also shown commitment to invest in agriculture industry, and this is expected to reach RM2.69 billion towards 2020," he added. (US$1=RM3.19) Under the ETP, agriculture is expected to generate a GNI of RM49.1 billion and provide jobs for 75,000 by 2020. Touching on global food crisis, he said Malaysia spent more than RM92 million a day from January to October last year or RM27.93 billion in total on food imports. "This staggering number shows that we appear to be relying more and more on other countries to feed our people. As such, we are certainly in a fragile position when confronting the global food crisis," he said. One of the moves to preserve food security is the promotion of reverse investment which involves the venturing and expansion of local investment in agricultural projects overseas that will result in the exportation of agricultural commodities produces into Malaysia for local food consumption. "For the time being, the focus of investment will be more on two types of food commodities, meats which include beef, goat, lamb and buffalo and sources of animal feed, especially corn and soybean," he said. He said potential countries that have been identified for reciprocal investment activities include Indonesia, Australia, Thailand, Papua New Guinea and Pakistan for meat production, while Cambodia, India and Indonesia for animal feed source. --BERNAMA