Govt to emphasise on boosting food production

The threat of food shortage arising from natural disasters, soil quality deterioration and other factors was becoming "all too real", he said.

He also said that global warming and climate change had made agriculture and food security a critical issue for Malaysia as well as for the region.

"For Asia and Asean, as one of the world's agricultural basins, food security in a world with an ever-increasing population and a finite amount of arable land is fast approaching the critical stage," he said at the 2nd inter-sessional meeting of the Global Science and Innovation Advisory Council (GSIAC) today.

The president and chief executive officer of the New York Academy of Sciences (NYAS), Ellis Rubinstein, also attended the meeting, the first event organised in Malaysia by the Malaysian Industry Government Group for High Technology (Might) in collaboration with the NYAS.

Najib said the key to food security must be through boosting production by way of innovation, better technology, and improved irrigation and quality of manpower.

"I believe we will have a presentation by the National Science Research Council (NSRC) that will look into enhancing sustainable rice production and the poultry industry through innovative research and competitiveness and, perhaps from there, we can exchange ideas on the broader aspects of food security," he said.

Najib also said that the government was "very concerned" about the increasing incidence of non-communicable diseases (NCD) in Malaysia.

"We care for the well-being of our people, and health as well as healthcare are a top priority.

"A healthy population is a productive population, and we need a healthy population to achieve the targets we have set for Malaysia by the year 2020," he said.

Najib said that as countries strived for economic development, sustainability and the well-being of the population must be of paramount importance.

"Malaysia is very keenly aware of this and we have made sustainability the bulwark of all our future planning.

"Even our recent (2013) budget was prepared along these lines, bearing the theme 'Prospering the Nation, Enhancing the Well-Being of the People: A Promise Fulfilled'.

Meanwhile, Najib said he was happy to note that Rubinstein managed to escape the wrath of Hurricane Sandy to be at the meeting today.