Better for Malaysia to optimise available resources in stopping over-reliance on food imports — Senator

KUCHING: Malaysia should not be too reliant on food imports, especially with the country having many land tracts, said Senator Datuk Ahmad Ibrahim.

In this regard, he proposed for the government, through its relevant arms, to take responsibility in optimising all the resources available in the country.

“Malaysia imports around 60 per cent of its food. According to the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DoSM), the country’s food imports in 2022 amounted to RM75.6 billion compared to exports of RM44.6 billion.

“This led to an increase in the food product trade deficit of RM31 billion, which was 24.3 per cent higher than in 2021,” he said during the debate on the Royal Address in the Dewan Negara sitting in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.

Ahmad said it was ‘unfortunate’ that the national policy on food security initiated by former prime minister Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi was not given priority by the next federal administration.

“Imagine if he (Abdullah) had continued on as prime minister, he would have successfully continued the agenda of food security and we would not be importing so many food items, especially rice today.

“Take Sarawak as an example, which has a vast area of land. If we had given the right emphasis before, then this (food insecurity) would not have happened,” he argued.

Ahmad said innovation and modern technology could serve as a paradigm shift to the food production industry in Malaysia.

“I believe this is the only way to ensure that our country can repair our food security system in order to benefit our future generation,” said Ahmad.

On another subject, Ahmad called for the immediate establishment of the Sarawak Cancer Centre for the benefit of cancer patients in Sarawak and Sabah.

According to him, cancer patients in both states still have to travel to Kuala Lumpur to obtain treatments.

“In my opinion, the need for the construction of the Sarawak Cancer Centre is crucial because in Sarawak, there are three types of cancer that are most frequently detected: respiratory, including lung, cancers at 14.3 per cent (from total cases detected); nasopharyngeal (nasal) cancers at 13.9 per cent; and colorectal cancer at 12.7 per cent.

“In cases affecting women, the one with the highest incidence is breast cancer, at 20.9 per cent, followed by cervical cancer at 12.6 per cent, and colorectal cancer at 9.5 per cent.”

Adding on, Ahmad expressed hope that upon completion, the cancer centre would streamline the access to treatments for cancer patients from Sarawak and Sabah, eliminating the need for them to travel to Kuala Lumpur.