KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 8 (Bernama) -- The Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security (MAFS) has proposed gazetting 217,165 hectares of rice bowl areas nationwide, following a reduction of 8,486 hectares in paddy field acreage between 2020 and 2025.
Its Deputy Minister Datuk Chan Foong Hin said 5,676 hectares of the reduction involved rice bowl areas, while another 2,810 hectares were outside the rice bowl areas.
He said the proposed gazettement was aimed at ensuring that paddy cultivation areas would not continue to shrink, while helping the country increase domestic rice production.
“The ministry takes this issue very seriously. At a meeting with state agriculture ministers and executive councillors, we recommended that all state governments propose that rice bowl areas throughout Malaysia be gazetted to prevent further reductions in paddy cultivation areas,” he said during the question-and-answer session in the Dewan Rakyat today.
He was responding to a supplementary question from Datuk Dr Idris Ahmad (PN-Bagan Serai) on the government’s measures to address the decline in paddy cultivation areas following changes in the status of paddy field land.
Elaborating, Chan said the government was implementing various measures to increase domestic paddy and rice production, including a project to cultivate paddy for five seasons over two years in the Muda Agricultural Development Authority (MADA) area.
In addition, the government is upgrading irrigation system infrastructure, such as in the Integrated Agricultural Development Areas (IADA) in Sabah and Sarawak, as well as strengthening the Large-Scale Smart Paddy Field (SMART SBB) programme, to increase paddy productivity and achieve an 80 per cent rice self-sufficiency level by 2030.
--BERNAMA