Benefit of One Baja Fertilizer for Attaining Agricultural Sustainability among Malaysian Paddy Farmers: Agricultural Sustainability among Malaysian Paddy Farmers

Introduction

The agriculture sector has been identified as the third engine of growth for Malaysia after manufacturing and service sector (Fahmi, Samah, & Abdullah, 2013). The agriculture sector has been proven as an effective medium to overcome self-sufficiency (Shaffril, Asmuni, & Ismail, 2010). For instant, the agriculture sector contributed RM 18.2 billion in GDP and helped Malaysia in overcoming the economic and financial crisis of 1997. Throughout the economic crises in 2007, Asian countries including Malaysia turned to agriculture as one of the relevant sectors to generate the main income. Malaysia is a high cost producer and for this reason the National Agricultural Policy (1992-2010) did not aim for full self-sufficiency. Whereas the food import bill for Malaysia was RM 7 billion in 2002, Malaysia aimed to lower it to RM 3 billion by 2005 and to become a net exporter by 2010 for food produce(Fahmi et al., 2013).Assumed Malaysia’s experience with the global food shortage in 2008, the government embarked on strategies to ensure sufficient supply of rice under the Tenth Malaysian Plan (2011-2015). Among the strategies included maintaining a stockpile of 292,000 tonnes or sustained consumption for 45 days, importing rice via long-term contract agreement in return for exporting palm oil or oil, increasing the productivity of existing granary or non-granary areas through upgrading infrastructure. The Malaysian government also set the target of 10 metric tonnes per paddy farmer to ensure the availability of rice is maintained and sufficient as part of the national food security agenda. At the same time, no new areas will be developed for paddy cultivation and local production was set to fulfill 70 percent of self-sufficiency. Further, in order to overcome restrictions on subsidies to farmers under the Asean Free Trade Area (AFTA) in 2005 and World Trade Organization (WTO), the Government set target for rice yields of 7 to 8 metric tonnes or more per hectare, from the current level at 4 to 5.5 metric tonnes per hectare (N. S. Ramli et al., 2013)