KL to spend $778m on food security
Malaysia will spend 2.49 billion ringgit (778 million dollars) this year to increase food production, a top minister said Friday, amid soaring costs globally for staple items like rice.
Agriculture Minister Mustapa Mohamed said the money would be spent on increasing rice farming and raising buffer stocks of the grain to match growing local demand, the state Bernama news agency reported.
"Malaysia has a sufficient stockpile of food," Mustapa was quoted as saying by Bernama. "However, with the continuous rises in prices of food in the global market, the government has implemented the National Policy on Food Security."
Incentives to boost food production would be "rolled out from June 2008," he said, after a meeting with cabinet leaders.
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