RM4bil boost for food: Experts to keep watch on prices - NST

By : Marc Lourdes

KUALA LUMPUR: The government has allocated RM4 billion to increase food production in the country and keep prices down.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, echoing a similar statement he made on April 11, said the nation needed to stockpile food in order to ensure security at a time of global supply uncertainties and price rises.

World food prices have shot up in the last year, with rice, the region's staple, costing 165 per cent more.

Abdullah said a large swathe of land in Sarawak would be turned into an intensive padi cultivation area to wean the country off imports.

"There is no longer any space in the peninsula and this area in Sarawak will be the new rice bowl of our country," said Abdullah after a closed-door meeting with Barisan Nasional MPs yesterday.

"We now produce only about 65 to 70 per cent of what we need. The government is trying to turn that into 100 per cent self-sufficiency."

[More at http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/NST/Sunday/Frontpage/2218523/Article/index_html]