Economist: Let public grow veggies, rear cattle to tackle food crisis

 

An economist today suggested the government reintroduce former prime minister Abdul Razak Hussein's Green Book Programme to address the country’s food crisis.

Speaking at a forum this afternoon, Manokaran Mottain said the programme, also known as Rancangan Buku Hijau, will allow ordinary citizens to do farming without many restrictions and will help the poor generate extra income.

"Have you heard of the green book system? Rancangan Buku Hijau. At that time, I was on the estate.

"I participated in the Green Book Programme, where they (government) gave us a plot of land, where we can farm something. Even rearing cattle was allowed in those days under Tun Razak's time.

"But now you cannot do all that. In order to address the food crisis, we should encourage the people to do a second job," he said.

Manokaran was speaking at a forum during the Malaysia Economic Summit 2022 held in Berjaya Times Square Hotel, Kuala Lumpur. The event was organised by the KSI Strategic Institute for Asia Pacific.

He was referring to an initiative introduced in the 1970s by then prime minister Abdul Razak. It was formulated to encourage people to get involved in farming activities.

According to the economist, Malaysia has a vast amount of land and should have a better supply of food items compared to its island neighbour Singapore.

However, according to him, Singapore has a ready supply that can last them six months while Malaysia could only provide sufficient supply for only three months.

Manokaran also criticised the authorities which he said would form many task forces to plan during times of crisis but have trouble actually delivering on the plans.

"During crisis period, so many task forces formed, planning done... all kind of planning.

"But implementation, execution... problem.

"We are more interested in politics rather than helping out the poor people, the B40 (bottom 40 percent of income earners)."

Manokaran suggested that the government emulates its policy during the Covid-19 pandemic, where they allowed people to run small businesses by the roadside to generate income.

"Likewise, the government can now say that, ok you can identify empty land and you go do farming.

"Do it no problem, as long as you don't disturb the power line.

"Why not you do this kind of thing? Then you can create a full supply of vegetables, even cattle," he said. - Mkini