Food for thought

Every year we produce 2,000 graduates in agriculture, but there is hardly a plot to work on

WE must know this: agriculture is a diminishing activity in Malaysia. In 1970, our agriculture sector contributed 29.9 per cent to the country’s gross domestic product. Today, it is only 8.9 per cent. Employment, too, is close to stagnant. In 2013, there were 1.6 million employed in the agriculture sector. Today, it is 1.63 million. The back story to this is this. Policymakers then thought, as a manufacturing country, Malaysia could afford to buy the agriculture produce we needed from others by selling our manufactured products. The food crisis that Malaysia faced in 2008 showed how wrong this policy was. In that year, the rice fields of Vietnam, Thailand, India and China were hit by a bacterial blight and they banned exports. Malaysia was compelled to pay a heavy price to get the rice it needed.

There is another reason for the decline. Not many Malaysians, especially the young ones, are entering the sector. It may have to do with an old story we hear now and then of farmer fathers telling their children: “Do not be like me, a lowly farmer.” This is precisely the reason why Malaysia’s very own Mowgli, Mohd Syukur Khamis, wanted his father’s buffaloes to be viralled. In Syukur’s view, his father’s profession has its own maruah dignity. If it be an inspiration to others around the country, Syukur is planning to read for an agribusiness degree to continue his father’s business of cattle breeding. Young graduates who are interested in getting into the ruminant business may want to pay a visit to the farm for a dose of inspiration from Syukur.

Malaysia produces some 2,000 graduates in agriculture a year, according to Professor Dr Abdul Shukor Juraimi, the dean of the Faculty of Agriculture, Universiti Putra Malaysia. Yet very few make it in the field. Like anywhere else, challenges are aplenty for the young men and women (77 per cent are men). And they are largely two in number: capital and land. A very high percentage of our graduates are with little means. Only a few have land inherited from their parents. Banks do offer loans, but the conditions are tough to meet, especially for fresh graduates with little means, according to Shukor.

Many may think Malaysians are a pampered lot. Not so. Europe, the United States, Canada, Australia and China do a lot to encourage young entrepreneurs to go into agriculture. France, for example, had set aside €1.9 billion (RM7.3 billion) between 2007 and 2013 (latest statistics available) for young farmers (aged 40 and below) either as a lump sum or subsidised loan to start an agriculture business. Interestingly, when a piece of land is put up for sale it is the local government and farmer’s board which decide the price and who can buy. The government even goes a step further. It assists young farmers with a reduction in taxes paid that is stepped up to five years. There are some things we do not want to follow France, but this is one area we must emulate. And soon too. Otherwise, we must get used to a high food import bill (RM45.4 billion in 2015). And a food crisis as in 2018.

A very high percentage of our graduates are with little means.