Food Security Policies in Malaysia: Ensuring Uninterrupted Military Capability in Maintaining Peace and Stability

Food is a basic necessity that can affect a country's peace and stability. In the current context, the term food sovereignty has come to denote a state's capability in ensuring its population receive adequate food supply. For a military force, food provides the adequate nutrition and energy source that would allow them to execute their roles effectively. This research is to study a basic necessity that can affect a country's peace and stability. In the current context, the term food sovereignty has come to denote a state's capability in ensuring its population receive adequate food supply. For a military force, food provides the adequate nutrition and energy source that would allow them to execute their roles effectively. This research paper has been intended to examine Malaysia's food security. Using the qualitative method, data has been derived from both primary and secondary sources. Primary sources involve interviews with persons related to food security issue and food supply to the MAF, while secondary data ii:ivolves the collection, dissection and examination of data from various sources like books, journals and news articles both printed and in electronic forms. This research has been based on three objectives, namely to examine the determinants of a state's food security, to analyse Malaysia's policies on food security and to examine how capable existing policies are in ensuring undisrupted food supply for the military in times of crisis or contingency. As identified by the findings, there are three main determinants that can be used to identify a nation's food security, encompassing availability, accessibility and affordability. This study also finds that Malaysia has various food security policies implemented since the pre-colonial time, up to the present time. In addition, it is also found that there are aspects lacking in the Malaysian food security policies to ensure uninterrupted food supply to the population, which also affects the supply to the MAF.

Makanan adalah keperluan asas yang boleh mempengaruhi keamanan dan kestabilan sesebuah negara. Di dalam konteks terkini, terma kedaulatan makanan telah membawa maksud kemampuan sesebuah negara dalam memastikan rakyatnya memperolehi bekalan makanan yang mencukupi. Bagi sesebuah pasukan ten/era, makanan membekalkan nutrisi mencukupi dan sumber tenaga yang membolehkan mereka menjalankan peranan mereka dengan berkesan. Kertas kajian ini telah dimaksudkan untuk mengkaji tentang keselamatan makanan Malaysia. Menggunakan kaedah kualitatif, data telah diperolehi daripada kedua-dua sumber primer dan sekunder. Sumber primer melibatkan temuramah dengan mereka yang terlibat dengan isu keselamatan makanan dan bekalan makanan kepada ATJ'vf, manakala sumber skunder pula melibatkan pengumpulan, penelitian dan penganalisaan data daripada pelbagai sumber seperti buku,jurnal dan artikel berita samada dicetak atau dalam bentuk elektronik: Kajian ini tel ah didasarkan kepada tiga objektif, iaitu untuk memeriksa faktor penentu keselamatan makanan sesebuah negara, untuk menganalisis polisi Malaysia tentang keselamatan makanan dan memeriksa kemampuan polisi sedia ada dalam memastikan tiada gangguan di dalam pembekalan makanan kepada pasukan tentera semasa krisis atau kontingensi. Sepertimana dikenalpasti oleh dapatan, terdapat tiga penentu utama bagi memastikan tahap keselamatan makanan bagi sesebuah negara, iaitu keberadaan, kebolehcapaian dan kemampumilikan. Kajian inijuga mendapati bahmva Malaysia mempunyai pelbagai polisi keselamatan makanan sejak zaman pra-kolonial hingga sekarang. Sebagai tambahan, ianya juga didapati bahmva terdapal aspek yang kekurangan di dalam polisi keselamatan makanan Malaysia bagi memastikan tiadanya gangguan bekalan makanan kepada populasi, yangjuga memberikan kesan kepada bekalan kepada ATM.