Malaysia turns to China’s rice-prawn farms as self-sufficiency slides

Malaysia is testing a Chinese farming model that grows rice and raises prawns on the same land, hoping to squeeze more food from its shrinking paddy fields. The move comes as the country’s rice self-sufficiency rate falls, forcing it to rely more on imports from neighbouring Southeast Asian nations. Agriculture and Food Security Minister Mohamad Sabu said on Monday that Malaysia must boost its rice output. The experiment also targets two other long-running problems: an ageing workforce of farmers and increasingly erratic weather, both of which have cut into production. The so-called “2 yields, 1 land” approach, developed in China, allows farmers to harvest rice and prawns from a single plot, improving income and soil health without expanding farmland. Malaysia’s paddy area has shrunk in recent years due to urban development and conversion to other crops, while extreme heat and floods have damaged harvests. The government has not yet said how many farms will adopt the model or when results are expected. But officials see it as a practical fix to a looming food security gap.