LETTER | Rethinking food security: Self-reliance at grassroots community

LETTER | Food security has been a significant concern for Malaysians, particularly since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. The fluctuation and volatility in food prices have also raised alarms regarding the nation’s food availability.

The term food security has often been associated with the prices of eggs and chicken, the availability of rice, and the state of paddy plantations.

However, food security extends far beyond the conventional concepts. It is not just about securing enough food but also fostering self-reliance within communities, enabling them to sustain and thrive through their own sustainable means, drawing upon local knowledge and the establishment of community support.

My recent visit to a morning market called tamu at Tuaran town, located 40km away from the central of Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, was an eye-opening experience.

It reshaped my comprehension of food security, albeit my indulgence in the food security concepts found through readings and media portray.

During the visit, my mentor brought me around and introduced all sorts of locally grown commodities, also called sayur kampung, which are sold in sizable amounts to avoid food waste.

With unique local recipes, these commodities are favoured by the local communities who are contentedly relying on their own food resources.

From traditional vegetables like terung pipit (mini brinjal) to homemade fermented food called busou, the visit deliberately demonstrated a high level of self-reliance and utilisation of local knowledge in translating a sustainable local food system.

In other words, self-sufficiency in food security should encompass not only individual self-reliance but also empowerment of ground communities, facilitated and stimulated by effected bottom-up policy interventions.

Some practices from New Zealand, which has navigated a broad spectrum of strategies to tackle food security could provide some key perspectives that offer a fresh approach to understanding food security within the Malaysian context.

Community farming

Firstly, the concept of Community Supported Agriculture (CSA model) or crop sharing could be leveraged at the community level to encourage the active participation of local farmers or even community farming.

By participating in CSA programs, communities in New Zealand invest in local community farmers, buy shares of their harvests, and ensure access to fresh, locally sourced produce.

This not only promotes community camaraderie but also nurtures self-reliance in securing fresh and wholesome food.

At the same time, local communities who run small stores within the community could be further empowered.

Supporting local and small-scale stores is also a positive way to strengthen food security as these stores often offer a diverse range of products, ensuring access to the specific foods we need while fostering entrepreneurship within our communities.

Rural & urban farming

Besides that, foraging for naturally growing, wild foods is also highly encouraged in New Zealand to safeguard food security at the community level.

Besides reducing dependence on commercial sources and reviving ancestral knowledge, food foraging is also an indication of the self-reliance embedded in communities.

In Malaysia’s context, food forage is not an advantage that belongs only to the rural communities.

Urban folks in the city areas could look out for edible greens such as pucuk paku and raja ulam which are also part and parcel of the Malaysian’s local delights.

To some degree, urban communities could also create container gardens which are highly effective even in limited spaces to empower urban citizens to produce their own fresh vegetables and fruits, promoting self-sufficiency in food production and indirectly aiding in mitigating the high cost of living.

Making farming attractive

Adding on, Willing Workers on Organic Farms, better known as woofing, also presents an opportunity to gain valuable agricultural skills.

It is a worldwide movement to connect visitors with organic farmers working on organic farms to promote cultural and agricultural exchange.

In exchange for food, accommodation, and agricultural skills, visitors known as woofers, can enhance their self-reliance in food production by contributing labour to the organic farm owners.

In Malaysia, woofing is a relatively new concept and only 15 hosts are participating in this global network.

Such community-based initiatives should be highly empowered and supported to enable a wide range of income opportunities for the nation’s food producers, and simultaneously uplift the agricultural sector as an attractive sector to the younger generation.

Reducing food wastage

Furthermore, we need to acknowledge that food security is not just about having access to food but also minimising food wastage, which is essential for promoting self-reliance.

Learning how to can, dry, and store food ensures that nothing goes to waste. In my tamu experience, many preserved foods are part of their daily dishes eaten with cooked staple food like rice and potatoes.

This is certainly proof of how the local communities utilise their local knowledge in processing food and reducing food waste.

In Malaysia, there’s up to 17, 000 tonnes of food are wasted daily, and out of this enormous data, 24 percent or 4,005 tonnes are still edible. In other words, the amount of food wasted can feed around 2.9 million people with three meals a day.

In essence, self-reliance is strong among many grassroots communities in Malaysia which need to be highly comprehended, supported and empowered.

Running workshops on vegetable gardening, the right ways to produce composition and ethical animal butchering can support the communities to take control of their food production.

Sharing knowledge within the community is also a vital step towards self-sufficiency. The prowess of the food producers ought to be acknowledged and encouraged as self-reliance in food security is most potent when communities work together.

My tamu experience revealed that food security is not just about what is on our plates today, but also about empowering communities to provide for themselves, drawing on local knowledge and mutual support.

By adopting these practices and policies, we can reshape our understanding of food security and work towards a more self-reliant, sustainable, and empowered future for Malaysia.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.