Malaysian Agriculture

TUTORIAL 3 (Algriculture for Students)

Question 1

What are the constraints that might impede growth of agricultural/agribusiness sector in Malaysia?

The climate change impacts on agricultural crops in Malaysia governs by the timing of physiological process, the rate of expansion and survival reproductive structures and evaporation function due to climate change. An increases in temperature affect the moisture availability through effects on evaporation; in general evaporation increases by about 5% for each 1 degree Celsius increase in main annual temperature.

Climate change is expected to result in long term water and other resource shortages also which would be worsening soil condition, disease and pest outbreaks on crops and livestock, sea-level rise, andso on. Vulnerable areas are expected to experience losses in agricultural productivity, primarily due to reductions in crop yields and ultimate effect goes much on poor. So, climate change is a major threat for sustainable agriculture forMalaysia. As climate is continuously changing and affecting the agriculture in diversified ways, a good measurement of its impacts on sustainable agriculture and smooth adaptation are needed to ensure long run agricultural sustainability inMalaysia.

Question 2

What are the possible reasons for this renewed interest in agriculture?

The major factors leading to this renewal interest in agriculture is the increasing relevance and impact of agriculture and food (agri-food) Supply Chain Management and inexorable rise of supermarkets at the global, regional and even Malaysia. These, coupled with the advancements and applications of biotechnology, on the one hand, and ICT on the other, and their impending convergence (Bio-informatics and beyond) are expected to lead a ‘Big Bang’ or major shift making it a worthy and exciting area of study. Besides, increasing our dependency on imported food is not a sustainable long-term strategy. The vulnerability of the country’s...