The country is still far away from stopping dependence on imported rice
Updated: Jun 21
By Nor Amalina Alias (BH Online)- May 29, 2023 @ 7:35pm
BACHOK: The country doesn't need to depend on imported rice if paddy fields are able to produce an average of 10 tonnes of rice per hectare each season.
The Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Datuk Seri Mohamad Sabu, said that currently the average production of rice is only five tonnes per hectare per season.
He said, at this time the ministry was following the yield production standards according to the system established in Sekinchan, Selangor which had yielded yields of seven to 10 tonnes per hectare.
"All kinds of techniques, new steel has to be introduced from time to time, it might take time but it needs to be there.
"If the average rice under the Kemubu Agricultural Development Institute (KADA) and the Young Agricultural Development Institute (MADA) reaches seven to 10 tons of rice per hectare, we don't need imported rice," he said while observing the operation of a paddy rice pump in Kubang Telaga Village, in here, today.
Also present was the General Manager of KADA, Mohd Faizul Mustafa.
Mohamad said, in order to increase production output, the agency and farmers need to step up their respective businesses.
He said agencies and agricultural parties need to introduce new technologies or methods such as planting saltwater rice, sufficient infrastructure and more effort that needs to be done by farmers.
"It's not just rice, for example vegetables, for Bangladeshis, they get two, three acres of land, they have worked hard until they are successful, such as in Selangor, Pulau Pinang and Perak.
"We are subject to more, to produce rice, vegetables as a guarantee of food supply in the country," he said.
He said, among the factors that determine the production of rice is the problem of drainage, water and steel control.
He said parties such as the Malaysian Agricultural Research and Development Institute (MARDI) may introduce new steels such as organic steel used by farmers in Indonesia so that the output is able to accommodate up to 300 million people.
At the same time, Mohamad also announced an additional allocation of RM300,000 for the purchase of 100 pumps to help farmers irrigate their fields during the dry season.