Sustainable Development of Malaysian Rice Industry in the Context of Asian Countries: An Assessment

The sustainability of rice industry is associated with many factors including the environmental degradation ,shortage of good arable land, population pressure and the loss in the competitive edge of this commodity. The ultimate effect of these variables is implicitly shown in production and consumption declines. This article attempts to estimate per capita rice production and consumption trends for Malaysia that will shed some light on the seriousness of food problem in this country. With some degrees of variation , the estimated forecasting models predict a declining trend both for rice production and consumption. These results suggest that Malaysia will have to continue import rice indefinitely into the future. This means current food policy appears to trade-off sustainability with rice imports as it is considered to be cost saving. Nevertheless, this is risky and should be viewed in relation to the existing efforts to modernise rice industry as well as the changing pattern of rice consumption of the current and future population.