LETTERS: Due to climate change, floods, droughts and heat stress have increased in frequency, devastating farming regions.
Many countries' agricultural sectors face problems, including in Malaysia.
Our agriculture sector's share of the gross domestic product declined from 43.7 to 7.1 per cent between 1960 and 2021. As a result, the nation experiences a food shortage and must depend on imports.
Malaysia bought US$583 million worth of rice in 2021, making us the world's 12th largest importer of rice.
In the same year, Malaysia bought 3.7 million tonnes of maize and US$176 million in coffee and tea extracts.
The dependency on food imports may endanger the nation, especially if worldwide supplies of food decrease owing to natural disasters or crop diseases.
Malaysia has always been heavily reliant on imported vegetables and fruits.
When food supplies are insufficient and unreliable, those with low incomes will bear the brunt, and the upper class is going to suffer from rising basic living expenditures.
Therefore, sustainable agriculture is critical for various reasons:
FIRST, sustainable agriculture strives to reduce negative environmental impacts by protecting ecosystems, biodiversity and natural resources through encouraging soil health, preserving water resources and limiting the use of pesticides.
SECOND, sustainable agriculture means guaranteeing food security, prioritising long-term productivity by preserving soil fertility, reducing erosion and encouraging crop diversity.
Farmers may strengthen their resilience to climate change, extreme weather events, and other problems by adopting sustainable practices.
THIRD, by lowering greenhouse gas emissions, sustainable agriculture helps combat climate change. Agroforestry and conservation tillage, for example, trap carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and lower the agricultural sector's carbon footprint.
Sustainable agriculture promotes the use of sources of clean energy and increases energy efficiency in farming, which aids in climate change mitigation.
FOURTH, farmers and rural communities benefit economically from sustainable agriculture by minimising input costs and enhancing production and product quality.
Moreover, sustainable agriculture encourages local and organic agricultural mechanisms, which can create jobs and help the economy.
FIFTH, sustainable agriculture reduces water waste and protects water resources by using water-efficient practices, such as drip irrigation, rainwater collection and crop selection.
Most importantly, sustainable agriculture aims to reduce the use of synthetic fertilisers, chemicals and antibiotics.
We must develop cohesive adaptation and mitigation measures to tackle the impact of climate change on farming, with the goal of reclaiming strong and sustained output from agriculture.
Therefore, Malaysia must reconsider its climate change adaptation methods:
FIRST, devise effective tactics and develop broad plans to tackle the concerns of climate change and by boosting the nation's self-sufficiency and food safety;
SECOND, focus on improving growers' adaptation capabilities to the effects of the changing climate on their farming operations; and,
THIRD, using research on agriculture, implement policy-based modifications.
Let's develop our own national strategy on agricultural adaptation to climate change.
To summarise, environmentally friendly farming is critical to tackling the deterioration of the environment, nutrition, climate change and the health of the people.
DR RULIA AKHTAR
Research fellow, Ungku Aziz Centre for Development Studies, Universiti Malaya
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect those of the New Straits Times