Ensuring Brunei food security

Ensuring Brunei food security


Wednesday, October 8, 2008

THE key issue of improving national food security was the most important item in the titah of His Majesty the Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan of Brunei Darussalam on the occasion of his 62nd birthday on July 15 this year. Highlighting the need to increase domestic rice production His Majesty asked why when countries which were already producing 70 per cent of their own needs were legislating to produce 100 per cent when Brunei which was only producing 3.12 per cent of its needs not making any effort to increase its rice production. Pointing to the current food crisis compounded by the diversion of grains to bio-fuel production, His Majesty stressed, "The attitude of completely relying on dollars to fill stomachs is no longer relevant with the emergence of this crisis."

There has been a dearth of discussion on this topic since it was highlighted. The Brunei Times in an article published on July 31, asked in the heading: "Is Brunei well-equipped to expand its agriculture industry?" The writer of the article noted production had fallen 74.5 per cent from 4,259 tonnes in 1977 to the current 1,084 tonnes. He notes that despite agriculture being a part of Brunei culture and tradition on a very small proportion of its population is still engaged in the sector — mainly retired military personnel and a few from the older generation. The younger set is drawn towards more glamorous professions such as banking, IT, SMEs or the civil service. The writer argues despite more land being made available such as the 484-hectare land at Bukit Sawat in the Belait District by the Agricultural Department and the small number of the younger generation taking up managerial or administrative positions in the agricultural sector in the near future, it may not be quite enough to achieve His Majesty's goal of self-sufficiency.

No blame is placed on the Agriculture Department which it was noted is assisting local co-operatives like the Koperasi Setia Kawan (Koseka), to increase Brunei's self-sufficiency rate by seven per cent by 2010 in the way of subsidies for fertilisers, pesticides and farming equipment. Like the cattle ranch at Willeroo in the Northern Territory of Australia to provide the Sultanate with beef, the possiblity of buying a piece of land outside the country to supply rice to Brunei is mooted. This is a real possibility and has been applied by some Middle-Eastern countries like Saudi Arabia.

However, can we just conclude that it is too costly to produce in Brunei as it makes good economic sense now in the light of costly subsidies and rising prices of fertilisers in the wake of rising oil prices. Brunei being also an oil producer can compensate for this. Its oil resources will not last forever and oil prices have begun falling in the wake of the onset the current global economic crunch and the ensuing panic in global stock markets. In any scenario, the current rice self sufficiency of 3.12 per cent and dropping is critical and unacceptable and must be addressed.