PETALING JAYA: Mohamad Sabu has defended his call for the public to plant their own crops amid uncertainty arising from the Middle East conflict, noting that countries like Singapore and Japan continue to encourage such practices.
The agriculture and food security minister said Japan and Singapore encourage their citizens to grow their own crops and practise urban farming despite having strong food policies in place.
He also said his proposal should not be belittled, adding that it was part of a multi-pronged approach to improve the resilience of the country’s food supply amid global uncertainties.
“If there are those who label such efforts as insignificant, that is their right,” he was quoted by Bernama as saying.
Mohamad, better known as Mat Sabu, was responding to a claim by an MP that the call for the public to cultivate their own crops was unlikely to resolve food security issues because of its small scale and minimal impact on the country’s overall food supply.
On Friday, Mohamad ordered his ministry’s officers to plant their own crops as there was no sign that the conflict involving Israel, the US and Iran would end soon.
Mohamad said the government encouraged those living in landed homes to cultivate fast-growing crops as an “additional step to increase domestic food supply”.
He said produce like chilli, eggplant and chives (daun kucai) were suitable for this purpose.
Mohamad also said the government would take early measures to bolster food security, including increasing the national stockpile of rice to last for up to nine months.
