‘Set modest rice production goal’

IZZAN KASSIM
BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN

BRUNEI should aim for a modest rice self-sufficiency target, a research fellow at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University (NTU) said.

In a recently published commentary piece, Dr Jonatan A Lassa, who is currently researching on food and environmental security issues at NTU, stated that it would be profitable and sustainable for Brunei to have a self-sufficiency policy target between 25 and 50 per cent.

Brunei has set a target of 60 per cent rice self-sufficiency (equivalent to 18,000 metric tonnes) by 2015. In 2014 it only managed to achieve a sufficiency rate of five per cent.

In an email exchange with The Brunei Times, the NTU research fellow explained that the 25-50 per cent target can be achieved through “improvements in rice variety, infrastructure (irrigation) as well as post-harvesting (better threshing and milling machines as well as good storing capacity)”.

In his commentary piece for Eurasia Review, the research fellow said that Brunei’s rice yield dropped to an average of 1.65 tonnes per hectare during the period from the late 1970s until late 1990s, reaching its lowest yield in 1999 at 0.53 tonnes per hectare.

Dr Lassa told The Brunei Times that the decline in yield was due to “lack of government incentives” in supporting the farmers, as there is not much that they can gain from small-scale agriculture.

“Without incentives (financial, technological and infrastructure), farmers cannot increase their yield,” he said in the interview. He added that heavy independence on oil makes the agriculture sector less attractive to farmers.

He observed similar situation in Indonesia during the late 1970s, when the Indonesian government spent its money from oil exports to import more than three million tonnes of rice per year.

However, Dr Lassa said that Brunei has the potential to increase its yield and that recent development has shown that Brunei’s agriculture sector is moving in the right direction.

“The present direction is good.”

Under Vision 2035, the research fellow said that the government has launched innovative agricultural initiatives such as the development of infrastructure, new land expansion, adoption of new rice hybrids, developing hydrophonics and aquaphonics technology as well as improving post-harvesting technology.

Although his outlook of Brunei’s agriculture sector is positive, he is cautious. “The extent to which this food self-sufficiency drive will be successful is, however, unclear.”

Given the size of Brunei’s population, Dr Lassa suggests Brunei adopt a modest rice self-sufficiency strategy.

Referring to the other food sector, he told The Brunei Times that other commodities such as eggs can be improved to 90 to 100 per cent, while green vegetables can be improved to 75 per cent.

The research fellow added that livestock might be difficult to produce locally. “It is better not to be too ambitious, because importing can be much more efficient at least at this point of time,” Dr Lassa told The Brunei Times.


Sumber - The Brunei Times