September 29, 2023
KUALA LUMPUR – Padi farmers and experts say there is more to the trials and tribulations revolving around the production of rice in Malaysia.
Dr Noraziyah Abd Aziz, who is with Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia’s (UKM) Department of Biological Sciences and Biotechnology, said one of the main problems afflicting Malaysia’s rice industry was the lack of rice varieties here.
“We have very limited choices here for farmers to choose from and we also do not have site-specific varieties. The same type of rice seed is used throughout the country regardless of differing soil types,’’ she said.
She said the same variety was also used for a prolonged period and this made the plants vulnerable to various diseases.
“There is a need for more varieties, especially site-specific types that can suit the climate of the specific location where it is being cultivated. The same variety must also not be planted for more than three seasons but can be brought back after a reasonable lapse of time,’’ Noraziyah said.
She cited as example the MR219 variety, which was introduced in 2001, that became vulnerable to diseases after some time but was still being used by some farmers in spite of its production being stopped in 2022, as well as the MR220CL which is still being widely planted in spite of being in use for more than a decade.
Plant genetics and biotechnology expert Prof Dr Wickneswari Ratnam, who retired from UKM, said Malaysian soil was not as fertile as, for example, Thai and Cambodian soil.
“There are no major rivers flowing through padi fields like in Thailand and Cambodia,’’ she said, adding that rivers would help fertilise the padi fields, thereby reducing cultivation cost for fertilisers.
Padi farmer Abdul Rashid Yob concurred with Noraziyah and said some of the standard variety, given across the board to all padi farmers, were not suitable for some soil types in Malaysia.
Abdul Rashid, who is an exco member of the Pertubuhan Persaudaraan Pesawah Malaysia (Pesawah), said he wished the Malaysian Agricultural Research and Development Institute (Mardi), research institutes and universities would create varieties which increased yields in every stalk than the current variety made available to them.
“Our current variety now has only about 180 to 200 padi seeds per stalk. In Indonesia, for instance, the variety they use produces 400 to 600 seeds in every stalk. If we have a variety similar to the Indonesian one, our padi yield can increase drastically,’’ he said.
Abdul Rashid, who is based in Kedah, said the ideal new variety created for Malaysia should have three main traits such as not requiring much fertiliser, resilient to the various diseases afflicting padi plants as well as having a short harvest period of 100 days or less.
The current harvest period is between 110 and 115 days.
On the allegation that rice producers are packing the local rice as imported variety, Abdul Rashid said there was basis to the allegation but added that he did not blame the culprits for doing so.
“The current price of RM2.60 per kg is too low. Rice prices here should be floated and not capped. If this cannot be done, the government must increase the subsidy for rice,’’ he added.
Abdul Rashid said refined rice production factories were suffering losses due to the low prices.
“The overheads are very high and production costs have increased drastically in recent times but the price has been capped at RM2.60 for about 10 years now. Selling at RM2.60 per kg does not cover our production costs at all.
“Thailand and Vietnam, which produce more rice than us, are selling at RM3.50 and RM3.60 respectively per kg, but we are still selling at RM2.60,’’ he added.
When asked about the padi seeds provided to the farmers, Wickneswari said seeds for planting were produced by authorised producers who have the know-how and the necessary facilities.
Currently, she added, there were about 11 to 13 such seed producers who obtain seeds from research institutes and universities with Mardi being the main developer of new rice varieties.
When it came to seed quality, Wickneswari said it would depend on the agronomic traits such as yield per hectare and resistance to various pests and diseases.
However, for yield to be satisfactory, padi farmers must also adhere to good agricultural practices, but more often than not, some farmers do not follow the guidelines set by the Agriculture Department.
“The farmers quite often don’t follow the standard operating procedure such as checking the pH of the soil and they also take shortcuts to save time and cost.”
Some of the farmers also use their own seeds, obtained from their harvest, instead of buying seeds from the authorised seed producers, said Wickneswari.
Recently, the ministry said creating hybrid seeds was one of the options it would be looking into to increase the nation’s rice yield.
Abdul Rashid said the hybrid seeds, which may increase yields, had its downside.
“The hybrid variety is a one-off harvest and cannot be used as seed for replanting whereas the seeds from the inbreed variety can be replanted up to six generations. It is also quite expensive to produce and cultivate the hybrid variety of rice,’’ he added.
Wickneswari said although there might be a 20% increase with the hybrid variety, the high cost incurred in producing the seeds, could not be compensated with the slight increase in yield.
Meanwhile, Malaysian Biotechnology Information Centre (MABIC) executive director Dr Mahaletchumy Arujanan said the various challenges faced by padi farmers, such as pests, diseases, weeds, soil conditions and drought, could be addressed with the usage of modern biotechnology such as genetic modification and gene editing.
She said that although Malaysia had capable scientists to work on this, they faced many obstacles, including protests by non-governmental organisations which resulted in scientists abandoning their research projects.