By Ahmad Ibrahim
Malaysia’s National Agrofood Policy (NAP) 2021–2030 promises a bold vision: self-sufficiency, high-tech farms and a circular economy driving sustainability.
Yet behind the glossy blueprint lies a harsh reality. Decades of underinvestment, fragmented governance and climate vulnerability threaten to rot this ambition before it ripens.
Embracing circularity isn’t just eco-friendly jargon – it’s a survival strategy. But without confronting core challenges, Malaysia risks sowing seeds of failure. The core challenges involve more than just poor soil.
Smallholder squeeze
Eighty per cent of farmers work plots under one hectare, trapped in low-tech, low-yield cycles. There are circular barriers. They have no capital for biogas digesters or compost systems. They have no scale to reuse waste streams.
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To achieve that remedial leap, we need to collectivise innovation. State-backed ‘circular hubs’ could lease tech – such as shared composting facilities and solar dryers – and broker crop waste-to-feed deals between farms.
Import addiction
Import addiction remains a big worry. An estimated RM80bn per year in food imports (2022), including 60% of vegetables, are a concern. Climate disruptions abroad can equal empty shelves at home.
There is a circular disconnect. While the NAP touts “closed-loop” farms, we lack systems to redirect urban food waste (17,000 tonnes per day) into animal feed or fertiliser.
As a solution, we should mandate commercial food waste segregation for processing into agricultural inputs. We should incentivise factories to use rice husks, palm biomass or spent grain.
But from the engagement with NAP people at the ministry, achieving economies of scale remains the biggest challenge.
Climate chaos
The droughts in Kedah and floods in Johor – 2023’s extremes – slashed rice yields by 40%.
We urgently need water recycling, drought-resistant crops and soil carbon capture. Yet adoption of these strategies is at a glacial pace.
As a remedy, we should tie subsidies to circular metrics. We should pay farmers for verified water savings, compost use or methane capture – not just yield.
Policy fragmentation
There is evidence of policy fragmentation. The Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security promotes circular farms; the Ministry of International Trade and Industry handles green tech; state governments control land and water.
But palm oil mills burn waste while vegetable farms buy chemical fertiliser.
We should create a circular agri-food task force with cross-ministerial teeth. We should also audit waste flows (palm, rice, livestock) and map industrial symbiosis zones.
Circular remedies call for moving from theory to practice.
Waste is the new ‘crop’
The problem: 80% of palm biomass is underused; 70% of municipal waste is organic.
The solution: scale community bio hubs to process farm and food waste into inputs. An example is Sarawak’s ‘waste-to-wealth’ parks that turn sago waste into feed.
Unforgiving maths of water
The problem: paddy fields consume 50% of national water and leakage exceeds 35%.
The solution: pay farmers to adopt closed-loop irrigation and rainwater harvesting. Pilot solar-powered desalination for coastal farms.
Technology justice for smallholders
The problem: precision ag tech (Internet of Things sensors, artificial intelligence) is priced for plantations, not small farms.
The solution: make government the anchor tenant. Then lease tech to cooperatives; use procurement contracts – such as for circular-certified rice – to de-risk adoption.
Bridging the urban-rural circular gap
The problem: cities discard nutrients; farms buy synthetics.
One suggested solution: create metro “food waste rail” – dedicated transport to divert urban organic waste to rural compost plants.
Give tax breaks for retailers donating unsold produce.
Way forward
Circularity isn’t optional – it’s survival. Malaysia’s agri-food plan needs more than slogans. It demands a wartime mentality: coordinate across silos, redirect subsidies and treat waste as strategic.
The Netherlands – a tiny nation feeding the world – powers half its greenhouses with agricultural waste.
Brazil turns crop residues into bio electricity.
We have the biomass. We have the need. What’s missing? Political courage to phase out leaky, linear subsidies. We need urgent capital for circular infrastructure (not just drones). We need to treat farmers as partners, not recipients.
Without this, the NAP’s circular vision will starve on the vine. But if we act – linking palm waste to rice paddies, cities to villages, data to dirt – we won’t just secure food. We’ll build an agricultural framework that heals, not harms.
The time for pilot projects is over. The hunger clock is ticking. A circular farm isn’t zero-waste – it’s zero-wasted opportunity.
Ahmad Ibrahim is affiliated with the Tan Sri Omar Centre for STI Policy Studies at UCSI University and is an associate fellow at the Ungku Aziz Centre for Development Studies, University of Malaya.
AGENDA RAKYAT - Lima perkara utama
- Tegakkan maruah serta kualiti kehidupan rakyat
- Galakkan pembangunan saksama, lestari serta tangani krisis alam sekitar
- Raikan kerencaman dan keterangkuman
- Selamatkan demokrasi dan angkatkan keluhuran undang-undang
- Lawan rasuah dan kronisme
