By IINA,
Kuala Lumpur : Malaysia will spend 2.49 billion ringgit ($778 million) this year to increase food production, a top minister said amid soaring costs globally for staple items like rice.
Agriculture Minister Mustapha Mohamed said the money would be spent on increasing rice farming and raising buffer stocks of the grain to match growing local demand, Bernama news agency reported. “Malaysia has a sufficient stockpile of food,” Mustapha was quoted as saying by Bernama. “However, with the continuous rises in prices of food in the global market, the government has implemented the National Policy on Food Security.”
Incentives to boost food production would be “rolled out from June 2008,” he said, after a meeting with cabinet leaders. The money is part of a 4.0-billion-ringgit pledge to increase food production and tackle price hikes. Mustapha said more than 1.0 billion ringgit had been allocated to increase the rice buffer stock to ensure a three-month supply of the grain. Prices of popular grades of rice in Malaysia are up substantially. One local brand spiked by 26 percent last week. Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Minister Sharer Samar has said the government will subsidies the price of rice. Malaysia produces some 1.6 million tones of rice, which roughly meets 70 percent of domestic consumption. The balance is usually imported from neighboring Thailand and Vietnam.