As rice output falls, Malaysia looks to China’s ‘2 yields, 1 land’ model
Chinese rice-prawn farms could help boost Malaysia’s farming production as it faces hurdles to meet its rice self-sufficiency goal
Malaysia is looking to China’s rice-prawn farms as a model to extract more from its shrinking paddy land as a slide in rice self-sufficiency has left it increasingly reliant on imports from its Southeast Asian neighbours.
The experiment is also part of an attempt to confront other issues such as ageing farmers and more erratic weather, which have dented Malaysia’s rice output.
Agriculture and Food Security Minister Mohamad Sabu said on Monday that Malaysia needed to raise its rice self-sufficiency ratio to at least 80 per cent, arguing that a level below 60 per cent was “not adequate” for national food security, state news agency Bernama reported.
“We want to increase productivity and strengthen the supply chain through expanding the use of technology … and encourage innovation and open up more opportunities for value creation throughout the industry chain,” he said.