KUALA LUMPUR: Rice, which is a staple food for much of Malaysia's 33 million people, is grown in a number of states.
However, the country continues to import about 30 per cent of its rice needs. Researchers are concerned about the slow growth in padi yields.
Experts from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) are working on new rice varieties that can tolerate different biotic and abiotic stresses, with the aim of achieving a self-sufficiency level (SSL) of 75 per cent.
Its Science, Biology and Biotechnology Department lecturer, Professor Dr Kalaivani Nadarajah, said Malaysia was "very far behind" Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, India and Bangladesh in this matter.
These countries, she said, had hundreds of padi varieties, and farmers would select them based on field conditions.
LACK OF VARIETIES
In contrast, Malaysia has only 50 varieties of padi, with most being high-yielding but not tolerant of environmental stress.
"Yield will be varied because it depends a lot on the soil conditions and field management.
"Farmers may get angry or annoyed with the breeder or whoever is providing them with seeds because they might have been promised eight tonnes per hectare, but they yield only three tonnes.
"What they do not realise is that there are many factors behind padi yield," she told the New Sunday Times.
Kalavani said it was vital for both authorities and researchers to "map" out padi fields and identify the type of padi suitable for the location.
"Then, we can try to optimise the yield and meet the SSL in our country."
Malaysia is targeting a SSL of 75 per cent by 2025, but she said the likelihood of achieving that is slim.
She added that developing good padi could come from research on resistance and breeding, as well as improving agricultural practices.
"The SSL was at 70 per cent a couple of years back. But due to the Covid-19 pandemic, it dropped to the mid-60s. We need to jumpstart this again, but to increase the figures by one per cent takes years.
"We can provide resistant varieties but if the agricultural practices are weak, our efforts would go to waste."
SALINE-RESISTANT PADI
Among the new padi lines being studied and developed are those that can handle environmental stresses such as drought, submergence, salinity, and disease.
The team of UKM researchers started a saline-resistant padi project in 2017, as a response to the increasing amount of rainfall and the rise in sea level.
"Since many padi fields are near coastal areas, a lot of (sea) water flooded padi fields.
"If we don't take this approach (by developing saline-resistant padi), sooner or later we will have a big problem on our hands," Kalavani said.
She said the country's current varieties would not tolerate salt.
"We need to be prepared for what's to come. With climate change and extreme weather changes, what we predicted five years ago may no longer apply in the next five years, so we must be proactive in our research."
DEVELOPMENT CHALLENGES
Fellow UKM lecturer Dr Noraziyah Abd Aziz Shamsudin, who is part of the team researching saline-resistant padi, said the challenge of developing new and highly-tolerant padi varieties was time.
It takes about 10 years to develop new inbred lines of padi compared with hybrid seeds.
"This is because the breeding process takes three to four years. Once the (inbred) line is stable, it takes another three to seven years for on-site trials and certification, before it can be released."
Noraziyah hoped the new saline-resistant padi variety could be launched in two years' time.
"Breeding is just one aspect of developing a variety. After that, it is to develop the fixed line, and then conduct field trials under real conditions before registering the variety.
"We have a 10-year timeline for this project. We should start seeing some solid (results) by 2025."
The other big obstacle for the researchers was a lack of funding, said Kalaivani.
She said it was vital for the government to direct funds towards important research to ensure national food security and stability.
"Compared with neighbouring countries, we have no saline-resistant padi varieties.
"We must work in synergy with other institutes, such as the Malaysian Agricultural Research and Development Institute (Mardi), so they (padi researchers) are not given the burden to conduct research by themselves.
"There are universities that are able to do research and come up with results, so the government needs to look into supporting research in these academic institutions and not just focus on one entity to provide all the answers for the country."
BEST PRACTICE ADOPTION
Meanwhile, Noraziyah said Malaysia should look into the best practices of other countries, and adapt their technologies and padi varieties here.
She said that as Bangladesh suffered from flooding constantly, the country had to develop submergence-tolerant padi varieties as fields are submerged for three months during the rainy season.
Even the country's agricultural practices were modified, she said, adding that Bangladesh had a dual farming system with saline water entering their fields.
"The country's farmers plant padi and also rear fish or shrimp in the padi fields, so in certain areas they have two sources of income.
"The waste from the fish or shrimp can act as natural fertiliser for their fields. This can be adopted into our systems here," Noraziyah added.
Kalaivani, meanwhile, said introducing such farming techniques would not only improve income but also reduce dependency on chemical inputs.
However, she said that apart from conducting research on new padi lines, there must be knowledge and technology transfers to farmers.
"We cannot sit in our ivory towers with this knowledge and not have it translated to the farmers.
"This needs good collaboration with the Agriculture and Food Security Ministry, which must work alongside us to do this."