Countries of the World/COUNTRYS.BIN/dp/0232/02321.txt

Text File | 1991-06-25 | 20KB | 338 lines

$Unique_ID{COW02321}
$Pretitle{245}
$Title{Malaysia
Chapter 3C.   Farm Production and Trade}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Donald M. Seekins}
$Affiliation{HQ, Department of the Army}
$Subject{hectares
percent
production
million
year
per
malaysia
rice
tons
government}
$Date{1984}
$Log{Star Fruit*0232101.scf
}
Country:     Malaysia
Book:        Malaysia, A Country Study
Author:      Donald M. Seekins
Affiliation: HQ, Department of the Army
Date:        1984

Chapter 3C.   Farm Production and Trade

[See Star Fruit: Courtesy Embassy of Indonesia, Washington DC.]

     The cultivation of rubber, oil palm, rice, and coconuts continued to
dominate Malaysian agriculture in 1983 (see table 15, Appendix) Tree crops
in particular generated the bulk of agricultural earnings at home and abroad.
Although the prospects for Malaysia's exports of commercial crops seemed good
even in the long run, the government nonetheless longed for the country to
become self-sufficient in food production-still a distant goal. In 1980,
for instance, the value of net food imports-excluding fish-reached about
US $734 million, roughly 22 percent of the net value of commercial crop
exports. This percentage was sharply lower than in 1975, but the cost of food
imports had risen by nearly 11 percent per year during the five-year period.

Food and Livestock

     Rice, in both its wetland and its dry-land varieties, has long been the
dietary staple. Production in 1982 reached some 1.3 million tons of milled
rice, compared with the consumption of 1.8 million tons for the year. The
share produced locally was virtually unchanged from that in 1970. The
shortfall, however, was primarily the result of drought conditions, and in
1980 as much as 92 percent of the nation's needs had been grown domestically.
Production had increased by about 2 percent per year since the 1969-71 period.
More than two-thirds of the increase could be attributed to improved yields,
which reached about 2.8 tons per hectare in 1981-low by Asian standards.
Yields on wetland farms, which made up 88 percent of the planted area, were
some four and one-half times larger than those on dry-land farms. About 60
percent of the wetland area was double cropped, the off-season harvest
accounting for about 37 percent of production.

     In Peninsular Malaysia, which contributed about 86 percent of all rice
production in the 1982 crop year (see Glossary), rice farms were clustered on
the marshy lowland of Kedah and Perlis on the western side of the peninsula
and on the steeper and drier plains of Kelantan on the eastern side (see fig.
6). In the west the 96,000 hectares of rice land managed by the Muda
Agricultural Development Authority produced 35 percent of the nation's rice
harvest in the 1982 crop year and had previously contributed more than 40
percent. In Kelantan an integrated project under the Kemubu Agricultural
Development Authority spanned some 57,000 hectares of farmland and has
produced from 7 to 8 percent of the annual crop. Virtually all of the farms
in these projects were irrigated and double cropped, and yields were slightly
higher than for other wet-rice areas. Although every state has developed some
wet-rice cultivation, the area was especially small in Johore and the
easternmost parts of Sabah and Sarawak. Almost all of the dry-land cultivation
took place in Sabah and Sarawak, chiefly in the latter.

     Most farmers sold their rice surpluses to private shopkeepers and agents
from processing mills, but the influence of cooperative and government
purchasing agents has grown steadily. The National Paddy and Rice Authority,
established in 1971, was the sole importer of rice and also maintained a
price-support system for domestic producers. Subsidies on the price of rice
reached M $165.4 per ton on about 1.1 million tons purchased by the agency in
1982. The subsidy element alone in that year was equivalent to the export
price of rice in neighboring Thailand. Even given the support price for rice,
however, only those farmers who were able to grow two crops a year could
normally earn enough income to stay above the government's poverty line.
Rice farmers in the Kemubu project area staged violent protests in January
1980 to press for higher subsidies, and the government remained concerned
about such sentiments in 1983.

     Cassava, maize, sweet potatoes, sago, yams, and taro were less important
starches than rice. Total production of such roots and tubers was about
507,000 tons in 1981 and had been growing slightly more rapidly than rice.
Sago and cassava were especially important to the people of Sabah and Sarawak.

     Sugarcane was grown for local consumption in most parts of the country,
but only in Perak, Perlis, Negeri Sembilan, and, to a lesser extent, Johore
was it of commercial significance. After decades of neglect, renewed
government support in the 1970s caused production to increase by over 19
percent per year to 850,000 tons in 1981-still insufficient to meet domestic
demand.

     Oilseeds and pulses have been eschewed in favor of coconuts to produce
cooking oils, but during the 1970s groundnut production expanded rapidly to
23,000 tons in 1981. Kelantan, Terengganu, and Perak were the leading areas,
the nuts being intercropped, grown between rice harvests, or planted on
upland fields.

     Fruits and vegetables were widely cultivated in a profusion of varieties.
Most production originated on smallholder farms, except for pineapples, which
were grown on plantations for export. Banana production alone made up more
than one-third of the 1.4 million tons of fruits and vegetables harvested in
1981.

     Coconuts, like coffee, tea, and pepper, occupy an intermediate realm
between food and purely commercial crops. An extremely versatile plant, the
coconut may be eaten raw or cooked and its milk used to prepare Malaysian
curries, or it may be pressed into copra for eventual processing into oil.
Coconut trees are ubiquitous in Malaysia, and because small stands are often
tucked away in settled areas, the actual extent of cultivation is difficult
to determine. Estimates of the larger stands suggest that the area has grown
little, if at all, to about 250,000 hectares in the early 1980s. Production
has declined slightly on average to about 1.2 million tons of nuts in 1981,
from which about 208,000 tons of copra were extracted. In contrast to
developments in Peninsular Malaysia, new planting in Sabah and Sarawak has
dramatically increased production in these states, especially from state-run
plantations in Sarawak. Elsewhere, production was primarily from smallholders,
who managed mixed stands of pepper, coconut, coffee, and cocoa. The production
of the latter increased by nearly 22 percent per year during the 1970s to
35,000 tons in 1981, primarily because of intercropping programs.

     The marketing of all food crops, with the exception of pineapples and
rice, was regulated by the Federal Agricultural Marketing Authority (FAMA). In
1979, however, the agency purchased and marketed only M $2.9 million of
produce-paltry by comparison with the amount sold on private markets. FAMA
had also established seven processing centers for coffee, coconuts, and
groundnuts by 1979 and was busy establishing other centers for cocoa, banana
chips, and other products. FAMA regulated private trade by issuing and
reviewing licenses for wholesalers.

     As in the case of food crops, Malaysia has been a net importer of
livestock and dairy products and of substantial amounts of livestock feed.
Whereas the domestic production of pork, poultry, and
eggs expanded rapidly in the 1970s to meet most of the nation's needs and to
produce some 80 percent of the value of all livestock production, Malaysia
imported 60 percent of its beef, about 75 percent of its mutton, and nearly
all of its dairy requirements in 1981. Most of the increase in poultry and
pork production has come from large, specialized farms having more than
40,000 chickens or 3,000 pigs per farm. Virtually all of the pork produce