Kedah padi harvest begins, just in time amid rice shortage

 

The Kedah padi harvesting season has begun and the shortage of local white rice will be overcome, the Senate was told today.

KUALA LUMPUR: The agriculture and food security ministry is confident that the shortage of local white rice in the domestic market will be overcome now that the harvest season has begun in Kedah.

Its deputy minister, Chan Foong Hin, said the harvest season in Kedah can boost the government’s efforts and interventions to tackle the shortage of rice supply through the local white rice special programme (BPT), which is actively being implemented.

“After a series of intervention measures, including the BPT, the local white rice shortage in the domestic market is expected to be addressed by the harvesting that has begun in Kedah,” he said when winding up the debate on the mid-term review of the 12th Malaysia Plan in the Senate today.

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Previously, agriculture and food security minister Mohamad Sabu reportedly said the supply of local white rice in the market would stabilise within a month following the government’s various measures.

Through the local white rice special programme, manufacturers were told to increase production of local white rice by 20% for a period of one year. - FMT