Content area
Full Text
1. Introduction
Food security is one of the priorities and the main agenda for countries worldwide, including Malaysia. According to the United Nations' Committee on World Food Security, food security is a situation where all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life. Consequently, food security has been a significant concern under Malaysia's numerous agricultural policies and development plans. In terms of food availability, Malaysia is self-sufficient in several essential food commodities such as poultry meat, eggs and fisheries. However, the country is still highly dependent on imported food for most of its food requirements, such as beef, mutton, vegetables, fruits, fresh milk, dairy products, onions and arguably, its national staple food–rice. Local rice production has stagnated in the last 30 years, and between 2016 and 2018, rice production decreased by 6.20% (Hashim and Abdul Hamid, 2020). According to the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM), as of August 2021, the self-sufficiency ratio [1] for rice has been on a reducing trend and stood at 63% compared to 71.6% in 2014. Thus, to fulfill its requirement, Malaysia imports between 30 and 40% of its rice consumption, mainly from Vietnam, India and Thailand (Hashim and Abdul Hamid, 2020). Furthermore, in 2020, there are eight items, which import dependency ratio [2] exceeded the 50% benchmark, namely mutton (2020: 90.4%; 2019: 88.2%), mango (2020: 86.2%; 2019: 73.5%), ginger (2020: 81.5%; 2019: 84.3%), beef (2020: 78.1%; 2019: 77.1%), chili (2020: 72.4%, 2019: 73.6%), round cabbage (2020: 63.6%; 2019: 60.9%), fresh milk (2020: 53.5%; 2019: 43.9%) and cuttlefish (2020: 52.2%; 2019: 37.4%) (Department of Statistics Malaysia, 2020a, 2021).
High reliance on imported foods inevitably affects food availability, which affects the country's food security, especially during crises that led to a drastic increase in food prices. A case in point, at the start of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, one of Malaysia's leading rice exporters–Vietnam, has decided to suspend its exports to prioritize domestic consumption, and its government is planning to set a limit for exports for the rest of the year (Vu, 2020). Additionally, high reliance on imported food also resulted in a hike in food prices, affecting food...