Local food production: Is it capable of meeting the growing demand?
According to the United Nations, the current global population is approximately 7.8 billion, and it is expected to increase to 9.7 billion by 2050. The growth of the global population, along with dietary changes, have increased the global food demand.
Food demand is expected to increase between 59% to 98% by 2050 and agricultural trade has become increasingly important to satisfy food demand all over the world.
What is food self-sufficiency and how is it measured?
According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), there are several definitions of food self-sufficiency that are applicable. The most basic explanation is the extent to which a country can satisfy its food needs from its own domestic production.
The diagram above represents the food self-sufficiency, with the line representing where food production is equal to food consumption within a country. Countries above the line produce more food than they consume where countries below the line consume more food than they produce.
Food self-sufficiency not only determines the level of food self-supply but also measures of net food-importing and net food-exporting countries, which indicate whether countries import more than they export or vice versa. For example, if a country food production is unable to meet the domestic demand, they need to seek other sources for the food and the only way is importing them from other countries. However, there are no countries that practise utterly free trade and rely on foreign markets for 100% of their food. All countries, even large food exporters that are fully self-sufficient, typically import at least some food.
Supply & Utilization Accounts (SUA) is a statistical framework that determines the pattern of a country’s supply and utilization for food commodities in agriculture. SUA framework allows the matching of food availability with food used. The indicator includes a self-sufficiency ratio (SSR) and import dependency ratio (IDR).
The self-sufficiency ratio (SSR) calculates the percentage of food consumed and produced domestically. It defines whether the production of agricultural commodities for a country is sufficient to meet domestic needs. The higher the ratio, the greater the self-sufficiency.
Import dependency ratio (IDR) is to determine the percentage of a country’s dependency on imports of agricultural commodities to meet domestic needs. The higher import dependency ratio means the more supply of agricultural commodities to be imported.
What is the self-sufficiency level of Malaysia?
According to Bank Negara Malaysia’s 2019: Food imports and the exchange rate, Malaysia remains a net importer of food, and imports account for at least a quarter of the total food supply.
According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Agricultural Industries, Malaysia’s food imports have increased from RM38.9 billion in 2013 to RM51.5 billion in 2019. An average annual growth rate of 4.8% over the seven years. Malaysia’s food exports have grown faster, from RM22.1 billion in 2013 to RM34.1 billion in 2019, with a compound annual growth rate of 7.5%.
Among the 42 most commonly used agricultural products, 24 have a self-sufficiency rate (SSR) of more than 100%. However, the main categories of agricultural food products such as rice, beef, lamb and milk have fallen below 100% SSR. This means that Malaysia has not yet achieved self-sufficiency in food supply to meet the food needs of a certain country. These foods rely on imports to meet domestic consumption, so they have a high import dependence rate.
Do you know our top five foods with the highest proportion of household expenditure in 2019?
According to the household expenditure survey report 2019, by Malaysia Department of Statistics, the average monthly household expenditure is about RM4,534, of which 23.6% will be used for housing and utility bills, followed by food and beverage which contribute to 17.3% of household expenditure.
The highest percentages of household expenditure on vegetables are mustard (74.2%), garlic (72.1%) and onion (66.0%). In the fishery category, the top three household expenditures are kembong (57.9%), cencaru (29.4%) and selayang (25.7%). The top three outside foods are noodle-based food (92.9%), tea (88.8%) and nasi lemak (82.6%).
Reduce imports, increasing the local production
Malaysia government has introduced various incentive for the agricultural sectors and several programmes to promote the local agri-food products. In the latest Malaysia Budget 2021, the government had allocated more than RM360 million for agriculture sectors to helps the farmers and fisherman to increase their output.
Implementation of new and emerging agricultural technology and digitalisation of agriculture is needed to increase the agricultural productivity, yield and quality of food produced.
Locally grown food creates important economic opportunities, provides health benefits and helps reduce environmental impact. It also helps to bring communities together and provides people with opportunities to change their lives.
