“And that affects brain development and stunting, where children never reach full height. Our rate is almost the same as Sub- Saharan Africa. Do we have a food security crisis in Malaysia? Probably not. Do we have a nutritional crisis? Absolutely,” says Prof Sayed Azam-Ali, CEO of Crops for the Future Research Centre (CFFRC).
SINGAPORE (Nov 18): Malaysia is not facing a food security crisis but what it does have is a nutritional crisis. According to “The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2019” report by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the prevalence of stunting among children under five years of age in Malaysia in 2018 was 20.7%, higher than in Ghana, which came in at 18.8%, Sri Lanka (17.3%) and Thailand (10.5%).
“These are statistics that we should not be having. We had less stunting 30 years ago than we do now. We have a situation where the poorest segments in Malaysia are malnourished because they can’t afford vegetables and fruits, and we don’t give any incentives for our farmers to grow nutritious food.
