This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on November 28, 2019 - December 4, 2019

OVER the past 14 years, Malaysia’s total acreage of coconut plantations has been reduced by a significant 30% —  an alarming rate of decrease, former finance minister Tun Dr Daim Zainuddin indicated, given his belief that the future of local agriculture lies in coconuts.

He was less bullish on oil palm, Malaysia’s most coveted agribusiness crop. Unless the oil can be used for more value-added products, for instance food products, he does not see a bright future for the country’s most popular crop.

According to official statistics, total planted coconut acreage has shrunk to 85,000ha from about 120,000ha in 2005. However, total acreage for oil palm grew exponentially to 5.8 million ha as at last year.

“In the 1960s, agriculture contributed to around 28% of Malaysia’s gross domestic product, and today it is only about 8%,” he said.

“The future is in coconuts, and not palm oil,” he asserted at a conference organised by the Asian Strategy and Leadership Institute yesterday entitled Poverty in Malaysia: Reality vs Perception.

Prodded to explain, Daim who has been an advocate of agriculture and food security in the country of late, and who owns some 500 acres (202ha) of coconut plantations, remarked: “Unless they do more research, in the case of palm oil by turning it into let us say, more food, then there is a future.”

In terms of land usage, rubber plantations come a distant second after oil palm. But smallholders are suffering as rubber prices have slipped.

Known for his sharp business acumen, Daim said he is trying to make the agriculture industry “sexy” for farmers, many of whom are still poor. “I am trying to make agriculture sexy through technology, sexy in the sense that money is made.”

In a recent interview with The Edge Malaysia weekly on food security, he suggested farmers consider planting ginger, chilli, onions, garlic, cabbage, sweet corn, cucumber, eggplant, okra, long beans, potatoes, avocado, coconuts, asam jawa, figs, grapes and mangoes as the country is importing too many of these items even though there is a local market for the produce.

Moreover, Malaysia’s imported food bill exceeds RM50 billion.

But he acknowledged frustrations among players and entrepreneurs in the sector. “So I have been advocating to the government, if you are serious, please put your money where your mouth is.

“I have written to all the state governments, who think I want the land. I said ‘no I don’t want the land, I said you set aside the land, we only want 30-year leases on the land, where we do all the planning, so they said ok.’

“So proposals were sent [by a few companies] and a meeting was held with government officials, but the proposals were rejected because of no experience.”

According to reports, Malaysia’s food import bill ballooned from RM10.5 billion in 1998 to RM51.28 billion in 2017 while food exports increased from RM6.15 billion in 1998 to RM31.84 billion in 2017. The food import bill has ballooned to almost RM60 billion this year.