Article Review: Lack of Land for Rice Planting in Malaysia

A non related to forestry post. Read the Star newspaper today online and saw this post.

According to the Agriculture and Agro-based Indus­tries Ministry, paddy land in the peninsula decreased from 372,542ha in 1997 to 284,441ha last year. That is almost 100,000ha of paddy land in the peninsula – the equivalent of 50,000 football fields that have given way to industrial and housing development over the last 15 years. In Sabah and Sarawak, paddy fields decreased by about 6,000ha in the same period.

So in total, 106,000 ha of paddy land  over 15 years has been relocated for industrial and housing project, which is about 7066 ha per year. With this rate, has caught the attention of the public.  But if we compared the rate to the total forest land being converted, the total land loss for paddy field over 15 years accounts a similar  total forest loss per year in Malaysia from 2000 to 2005; 106,000 ha per year! 

According to the Statistics Depart­ment, the population grew an average of 2% a year between 2000 and 2010, from 23.3 million to 28.3 million. With no reference to the total tonnes of rices being produce locally, it only reported that Malaysia now imports about 1.2 million tonnes of rice a year from Vietnam (49%), Thailand (33%), Pakistan (16%) and other countries (2%). In average,  Malaysians consume 180,000 tonnes of rice a month. According to a source from Bernas, the rice distributor and industry regulator, Malaysia spent RM1.85bil on rice imports last year.

References to the total land area and forest cover in Malaysia

The total land are in Malaysia?

The total land area of Malaysia is estimated to be 32.83 million ha with Peninsular Malaysia, Sabah and Sarawak having 13.16 million ha, 7.37 million ha, and 12.30 million ha respectively. Peninsular Malaysia is separated from Sabah and Sarawak by 720 km of the South China Sea, giving the country a coastline of almost 4,830 km.

Forest and balance of carbon stock in Malaysia (2005)

In terms of major forest types, it was estimated that in 2005 Malaysia had 15.97 million ha of dry inland forest, 1.36 million of swamp forest, 0.58 million ha of mangrove forest, and 0.40 million ha of forest plantation, with the proportion of forest areas much higher in Sabah and Sarawak than in Peninsular Malaysia which is more developed. The total carbon stock in the natural forests in Malaysia at the end of 2005 was estimated to be 3,442.33 million tonnes, with the Peninsula, Sabah and Sarawak having 1,138.71 million tonnes, 751.63 million tonnes and 1,551.99 million tonnes respectively.