Integration or Self‐Sufficiency? Peninsular Malaysia and the Rice Trade in Southeast Asia

Abstract

The issue of food self‐sufficiency has recently come under scrutiny as global trade liberalisation has been in conflict with national development strategies founded on protection and encouragement of staple food production. This paper examines the case of rice in Peninsular Malaysia from an historical perspective. It traces the evolution of self‐sufficiency strategies from colonial times tothe present and notes how and why such policies have been questioned both in the past and in recent years. It then suggests that a more integrated Southeast Asian regional rice economy may evolve as support for national self‐sufficiency wanes and, in this, there may be much to learn from the colonial era when such a regional rice trade thrived.