MALAYSIA STEPS UP FOOD PRODUCTION TO CUT FOOD IMPORTS - NOH

KUALA LUMPUR, March 17 (Bernama) -- Various efforts are being undertaken to
step up food production to reduce the nation's dependence on food imports, the
House of Representatives was told Wednesday.

Agriculture and Agro-based Industry Minister Noh Omar said these
included five high-impact projects, which would also help raise the nation's
rate of food self-sufficiency.

The projects were the Permanent Food Production Park, contract farming,
National Feedlot Centre (NFC), Aquaculture Industrial Zone and development of
15,000 agro-based entrepreneurs, he said when replying to a question from
Shamsul Anuar Nasarah, a Member of Parliament (MP).

Noh said the government would continue to focus on padi production through
the Food Supply Guarantee Policy 2008-2010 which provided allocations for
irrigation canal maintenance, land levelling, provision of additional fertiliser
and such.

"Productivity will also be raised through research and development on
diversity, high quality stock and seedlings as well as disease resistance," he
said.


Replying to a supplementary question from Shamsul Anuar, Noh said the
ministry was striving to achieve the target of 86 per cent self-sufficiency in
rice production by this year.

"Production of rice is now at 70 per cent, beef and buffalo meat at 27 per
cent and lamb at 10.3 per cent. We realise that the population is growing but
human resource in the agriculture sector is decreasing," he said.

The ministry would provide various aids, including the use of modern
technology, for agriculture land schemes to be opened in Kota Belud produce high
yield, he said.

The government was also identifying several areas abroad to encourage
government-linked companies to invest in the food sector and the products to be
imported, he added.

-- BERNAMA