Ini Bahagian 2. Bahagian 1 di sini.
SELF-SUFFICIENCY IN FOOD PRODUCTION
Di penghujung era Dr Mahathir Mohamad menjadi PM, dan semasa Abdullah Badawi, masa tu Datuk Seri, baru jadi PM, mereka ada idea yang sama (ahem, masa tu belum bergaduh lagi).
Mereka berdua cuba untuk menjadikan Malaysia menjadi negara yang tak perlu lagi mengimport banyak barangan makanan.
Menjadi negara self-sufficient dalam makanan. Masa tu, Malaysia mengimport barang makanan RM25 billion setahun - dari gandum ke beras, daging dan ikan.
Rancangan masa itu ialah nak membesarkan ternakan lembu, ayam dan ikan, menggalak penanaman padi dan sayur lagi, dan ladang buah-buahan.
Saya pernah menuju ke Johor apabila Abdullah lancarkan projek nak pelihara lembu, dan ke hujung Selangor (dekat Rawang-Ijok) untuk projek menanam ladang buah-buahan.
Masa tu Effendi Norwawi menjadi Menteri Pertanian. Macam-macam idea dikeluarkan. Saya pun begitu sibuk ikut beliau ke sana dan sini, lancar itu dan ini.
Syiok membuat penulisan tentang agriculture-pertanian ni. Dan interview pekebun tanam water melon dan sayuran. Mereka lebih down-to-earth (quite literally, too!) daripada orang politik yang hari ni cakap gini, esok tukar haluan.
Koridor utara dan timor yang dilancarkannya pun ada idea nak kembangkan sektor pertanian.
Tetapi akhirnya, tak tahulah apa dah jadi kepada projek-projek makanan itu, kerana Tun Abdullah mengalami terlalu banyak masalah politik sehingga tak dapat nak memajukan idea lain.
Sayang.
Ideanya, pada saya, sangat bagus.
Kurangkan belanja, dan jika ada lebih, boleh eksport.
Kini, negara kaya sedang berebut nak tanam itu dan ini agar ada food security.
Welcome to the world of Contract Farming.
Some people say this is Neo-Colonisation = new colonisation = penjajahan era baru, macam dulu orang British, Portugis dan Belanda datang ke sini suruh kita tanam gambir dan getah, mereka bawa pulang ke negara mereka.
Ini laporan yang saya tulis (di akhbar The Straits Times Singapore Sabtu/27Feb).
GAMBAR HIASAN: Penjajahan era baru atau projek membantu negara miskin?
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Farming is farmed out
By Reme Ahmad
Assistant Foreign Editor
MANUFACTURING is not the only sector being outsourced in these changing economic times. Farming itself is being farmed out.
China, South Korea, India, and some Gulf states including Saudi Arabia have been busy signing deals to ensure that there is food on the table for generations to come.
They are leasing or planning to lease huge tracts of farm land in Africa, Asia and Latin America to plant rice, wheat and other crops which will be shipped home after they are harvested.
According to estimates by the Washington-based International Food Policy Research Institute last year, the total value of farmland deals signed in recent years, along with those in the pipeline, ranges from US$20 billion (S$28 billion) to US$30 billion.
These outsourced farms cover a total area of about 20 million ha. That adds up to 20 per cent of the entire amount of arable land in the European Union.
Cash-rich countries say that while they keep their own populations fed, such deals provide billions of dollars of funds for poor governments and create jobs in rural economies.
They also gain from infrastructure projects such as roads and ports.
Mr Abdul Rahim Khan, a farmer and general secretary of the Sarhad Chamber of Agriculture in Pakistan, said Gulf companies have signalled interest in the country's farmland.
'There is no risk in it as we will only lease out our lands we are unable to use,' he was quoted as saying by Pakistan's The News daily recently. 'We are not selling out our precious lands to the foreigners.'
Some governments actually canvass for foreign investments in their farmlands. Indonesia, for example, is targeting one of its most remote regions, Papua, for such deals.
But not everyone, including local farmers, are happy with the idea of foreigners coming in to cultivate their land and then shipping the harvest away.
News that Madagascar had agreed to lease about half of its arable land to grow corn for South Koreans caused a backlash. It led to a coup that overthrew the island nation's president last March. The new Madagascar leader promptly scrapped the deal with Daewoo.
In some parts of Africa and Asia, critics are calling this wave of investments 'neo-colonialism', 'new feudalism' or just plain robbery.
The phenomenon was driven partly by the spiralling prices of food in 2008 that made many nations realise their vulnerability to food shortages.
According to a study by a United Nations body, the world's population is expected to jump to 9.1 billion by 2050 from 6.8 billion today - an increase of 34 per cent.
Food supplies will be strained unless more crops are grown. Then there are the issues of water scarcity and climate change to grapple with.
The looming shortages are expected to be aggravated by the practice in some countries to plant crops for biofuel instead of food. Sugar and corn are two examples.
'The inventories of food are the lowest, not in years but in decades. Supply is going to remain down since we have serious production problems,' Mr Jim Rogers, a global investor, was quoted as saying recently by India's Business Standard newspaper.
'At the same time, people are eating more and we are burning some of our foods as fuels.'
TAMBAHAN
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