In general, the world has been undergoing a phase of human population increase, and according to the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM), the country’s population has experienced an increase of 2.1 percent from the total of 32.7 million in 2022.

The increae in world’s population is expected to provide an impact towards food demand, and it can be concluded that the higher the population, the higher the demand for food supply.

The scenario has already been discussed earlier by one of the public universities in the east coast, Universiti Malaysia Terengganu (UMT), which focuses on research in the field of fisheries and aquaculture. Its Institute of Tropical Aquaculture and Fisheries (AKUATROP) has been officially recognized as a Higher Institution Centre of Excellence (HICoE) for Food Food under the research theme of Sustainable Shellfish Aquaculture.  

Vice Chancellor Professor Dato’ Dr. Mazlan Abd Ghaffar said UMT’s role is big in that it carries out research to provide plans and consultation services to assist the government in facing the challenges of food security, one of the world’s issues nowadays.

“We urge all parties, be they researchers, industry players, farm operators, or NGOs, to take on the government’s call to help solve the issues of food security in the country specifically and the world in general,” said Professor Mazlan in his speech during the opening ceremony of the Food Sustainability and Security: An International Conference (FUSE20223) recently organized by UMT.

The establishment of the Malaysian Shellfish Soceity (MSS) is timely in light of the issues regarding the sustainability of crustacean supplies in the region, he added.

“UMT will continue with this kind of initiative to support the effort of ensuring the security of aquatic-based food in line with the country’s needs,” Professor Mazlan said.

The conference with the theme “Innovations in Aquaculture and Agro Food” was attended by 60 participants, some of which hailed from nine countries and others were representatives from the Department of Fisheries and food and farming industries.

In addition, another focus of the discussion was regarding the initiative to reduce the cost of production and the effort to reduce the cost of the country’s food sales. This has received support from international institutions who are currently UMT’s collaborative partners in the United Kingdom and Canada.