KUALA LUMPUR: Driven by the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict, Malaysia is now reviewing its existing policies to further boost agricultural produce to improve its self-sufficiency.
Agriculture and Food Industries Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ronald Kiandee said the government needed to review existing policies as a long-term strategy to reduce the country's dependence on imports like corn and soybean waste that were among the components of livestock feed.
"At the ministry level, discussions are being carried out in depth, especially on imports of several agriculture produce that we are able to produce. Corn farming, for instance, is not really part of our (national agriculture) policies.
"However, looking at the current situation, we should encourage it as we have abundant land for farming," he said in reply to a supplementary question from Che Alias Hamid (Kemaman-Pas) during the ministerial question time (MQT) in Dewan Rakyat today.
Ronald said the border closure due to the pandemic and increase of crude oil prices have driven rising food costs.
He said incentives could be considered in encouraging farmers to venture into new fields like corn farming, that were less lucrative than producing other types of crops.
"We are also looking at optimising food waste as organic fertiliser. While the method is common, it is still not widely used in Malaysia."
Ronald earlier said the Russia-Ukraine conflict would definitely impact the global food chain.
In the Malaysian context, he said imports that involved agriculture input like fertilisers and food materials like wheat and cereal availability were directly affected, as well as vegetable and animal fats.
To address this, Mafi has taken several proactive measures in ensuring sufficient agriculture input and raw materials, he said.
Among them are increasing production through modern farming (including precision farming, drone usage and farm factories), encourage the use of alternative or organic fertilisers to reduce dependency on synthetic one and encourage usage of local livestock feed like Palm Kernel Expeller, apart from corns and soybean waste.
Other measures are encouraging farmers to adopt the Integrated Pest Management (IPM) method to reduce chemical pesticides, identifying alternative resources countries to cover the lack of raw materials and agriculture input and providing sufficient financing facilities for farmers affected by the rising production costs through Agrobank.
"Mafi will continue to work with the Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Ministry (KDPNHEP) in optimising the existing strategic platform to address the price hike issue due to the conflict."