Food security is defined by the United Nations’ Committee on World Food Security as the measure of food availability of food and individuals’ ability to access it.
According to the Global Food Security Index (GFSI) by The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) for 2021, Malaysia has been ranked 39th out of 113 countries and was listed in the top eight among Asia Pacific countries and placed second after Singapore in Southeast Asia.
The GFSI considers the issues of food affordability, availability, quality and safety, and natural resources and resilience across a set of 113 countries.
Malaysia is still considered to have vulnerable food security as it does not have self-sustainable food production, having majority of food imported.
As part of the system empowerment measures national food security, the Government through the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industries (MAFI) will be introducing the scheme, Skim Insurans Takaful Agromakanan for the agro-food sector.
“To begin with, the paddy and rice subsectors have been selected as a pilot project of the ministry that will benefit as many as 189,500 rice farmers before being expanded in stages to other sectors such as fisheries, crops and other sub-sectors of the food industry,” said the Prime Minister in his speech during the launching ceremony of MAHA on 6 August 2022.
“This scheme aims to reduce the financial implications as a result of the loss of crop yield following its occurrence natural disasters such as floods and droughts and disturbances epidemics.”
He added that the rice farmers will receive adequate compensation in the event of disruption to the country’s rice production productivity such as natural disasters or disease outbreaks.
Aside from that, in the effort to increase the country’s food production, MAFI through Agrobank has allocated as much as RM 800 million to the agricultural community under the fund, Dana Pembiayaan Agromakanan Keluarga Malaysia (DPAKM).
“Following the overwhelming response, the Government agreed to add another RM 200 million to make it RM 1 billion for the benefit of our entire agro-food farming community,” said YAB Dato’ Sri Ismail Sabri Yaakob.
He also added that Agrobank will also establish an investment entity specifically in the near future for the agricultural sector for increase domestic investment in the sector national agro-food.
To strengthen the national food securities, the government has established a Cabinet Committee National Food Security to formulate a holistic food security policy.
Under the committee, the National Food Security Policy Action Plan 2021-2025 has been developed by focusing on the national food security issues and challenges.
This is important for the country to achieve self- sufficiency in producing food commodities in the country for the population to reduce dependency on food importation.
“The government also ensures the issue of national food security always be prioritized through the committees, Jawatankuasa Teknikal Menangani Isu Sekuriti Bekalan Makanan Negara and Jawatankuasa Pasukan Jihad Tangani Inflasi,” said Dato’ Sri Ismail.
The 2022 edition of MAHA event aims at promoting agriculture and agro-based industries.
The event also introduced the first “Hybrid” event concept where live and virtual platforms events are both combined.
The 11 days MAHA 2022 Exhibition (from 4 August to 15 August 2022) ended with an impressive record of over 1.4 million visitors and registering sales of over RM260 million, which was said to have exceeded its set target.
The four pillar of food security according to the Committee of World Food Security;
- Availability relates to the production and distribution of food
- Access to affordable and distribution of food based on consumer household preferences
- Utilization on how each household prepares and process food
- Stability on the consistency of food delivery to the targeted population
