KUALA LUMPUR: Agriculture and Food Security Minister Datuk Seri Mohamad Sabu has told the Dewan Rakyat that negotiations will be made with the Indian government to find a suitable solution over the rice export restrictions made by India.
This, he said, will be one of the efforts to help alleviate the issue of local white rice shortages in the country.
"As the Agriculture and Food Security minister, I will conduct a meeting with India's Agriculture and Farmers Welfare minister soon to discuss the best solution to the rice export restrictions.
"Meanwhile, Padiberas Nasional Bhd (Bernas) are also negotiating with other rice producing countries such as Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia," he said.
He also added that the current rice stockpile is sufficient to cover the country's rice needs for a period of four to five months.
"Currently the rice supply stockpile is at 900,000 metric tons consisting of 250,000 metric tons of the Government's stockpile and 650,000 metric tons of commercial stock.
"This amount is sufficient to cover the country's rice needs for a period of four to five months.
"Therefore the ministry believes that there is still no urgent need of an emergency to use the 250,000 metric tons stockpile. The existing trading stock of 650,000 metric tons is sufficient to cover domestic needs," Mohamad said.
He also added that the ministry, apart from enforcement operations and engagement sessions with stakeholders, are also implementing initiatives to increase the country's rice production in order to reach the rice Sufficiency Rate (SSR) target of 80 per cent by 2030.
Among the initiatives carried out was the implementation of the SMART Large-Scale Padi (SMART SBB) programme which was expanded by targeting the implementation of the programme in an area of 150,000 hectares of padi fields with an average yield of seven tons per hectare.
"This programme is implemented based on four models, namely SMART SBB Padi Putih, SMART SBB Padi Wangi, SMART SBB Asnaf and SMART SBB Mini Sekinchan.
"The programme does not use any additional allocations from the government and that the companies involved will bear the operational costs amounting up to RM3,200 per hectare," he said during the winding up session of the 12th Malaysia Plan (12MP) mid-term review in Dewan Rakyat, today.