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.
“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).
The Khazanah Research Institute (KRI) report “Addressing Malnutrition in Malaysia” — authored by Visiting Senior Fellow Prof Wan Abdul Manan Wan Muda, research adviser Prof Jomo Kwame Sundaram and research associate Tan Zhai Gen — says rural households in Malaysia have higher rates of underweight and stunting than their urban counterparts.
“In 2016, Kelantan had the highest rate of stunting at 34% of children five years and below, followed by Terengganu at 26.1% and Pahang at 25.7%, but the increase in Pulau Pinang was highest among all states, more than doubling from 2006 to 2016, followed by Kelantan with an 83% increase,” the report says.
The report also states that Malaysia has become the fattest country in Southeast Asia and is sixth in the Asia-Pacific.
The prevalence of obesity among Malaysians younger than 18 increased from 5.4% in 2006 to 11.9% in 2015. For adults aged 18 and above, the percentage of the overweight almost doubled in 10 years from 16.6% in 1996 to 29.1% in 2006, before rising slightly to 30% in 2015. Overall, the percentage of the obese also increased from 4.5% in 1996 to 17.7% in 2015, a fourfold increase over 19 years.
Sayed says this phenomena is mainly seen in the urban population, due to their dietary preferences. “This is the population that eats more processed and calorie-rich food. So, instead of being nutritionally healthy, they are overweight and we are seeing obesity and micronutrient deficiency,” he says.
Addressing micronutrient deficiency
Micronutrients, according to the KRI report, are nutrients only needed in minuscule quantities. These are typically vitamins, minerals and trace elements, all substances that enable the body to produce enzymes, hormones and other substances essential for normal growth and development.
“Micronutrient deficiencies are difficult to detect as their signs and symptoms are not very manifest in comparison with other forms of undernutrition and overnutrition. A child may be suffering from mild micronutrient deficiencies without showing anatomical or clinical symptoms to the naked eye, except through biochemical analysis of the blood or urine,” says KRI.
The report adds that the problem of micronutrient deficiencies or “hidden hunger” in Malaysia has not received much attention in the media as compared with more visually conspicuous problems such as obesity and stunting among children.
When met by The Edge Malaysia at the launch of the KRI report, Jomo says a concerted effort needs to be taken by the Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Health and Ministry of Education to tackle this problem.
“First, we need to understand that food security does not mean rice self-sufficiency. From a nutrition point of view, eating rice alone is not good for you, so we really need to do much more. We need to find alternative sources of nutrients. In fact, we do have such sources but no one is producing them in large enough quantities,” he says. “Instead, we are allowing large food companies to dictate what our food requirements are, which is a big mistake. So what we need to do is for the agriculture ministry, which also plays the role of ministry of food, to work closely with the Ministry of Health and Ministry of Education. For example, school feeding programmes are not just about the food but creating awareness among the rakyat [people] about what they are eating, and why they are eating what they are eating, and this has implications for future generations.”
“Right now, we have a culture where when a child is chubby, we say the child is healthy. That was understandable at a time when there was a lot of wasting (low weight) in the country. Today, it doesn’t make sense. So we need to educate our people, but unfortunately, that is not happening,” he says.
Sayed concurs that there should be coordination between the ministries to tackle the issue of nutrient deficiency.
“We have to look at the national picture. Every time we produce obese children as well as malnourished, stunted children, the government is paying the bill with hospital admissions because nutrition is not part of the agriculture agenda.
“The Ministry of Health needs to ask the Ministry of Agriculture, why are we not making healthy food a priority in every school and supermarket?
“The education ministry’s school feeding programmes should prioritise nutritious foods and the ingredients for the programmes should be sourced locally so that there is a guaranteed market for our farmers. This will encourage them to grow nutritious crops.
“We should have this kind of joined-up thinking, because if [the] agriculture [sector] produces nutritious food, the health ministry does not need to spend so much to tackle health issues,” he says.
