Anwar said he had called Syed Mokhtar, who controls Padiberas Nasional Bhd (Bernas), today after the government announced an adjustment to the floor price of padi from RM1,300 per metric tonne to RM1,500.

“He agreed to channel an additional RM30 million to support the government’s efforts to help poor (padi) farmers.

“God-willing, the government will channel these funds directly to poor farmers as soon as possible,” he said in a Facebook post.

Shortly after being appointed as prime minister in 2022, Anwar announced that Syed Mokhtar had agreed to allocate RM10 million for poor padi farmers in December that year. Bernas allocated an additional RM50 million for poor farmers in 2023.

The new RM1,500 floor price of padi comes into effect this Sunday. Agriculture and food security minister Mohamad Sabu said this took into account the rising costs of wages and agricultural input, such as fertilisers and pesticides, incurred by farmers.

The floor price was adjusted to RM1,300 in 2024, after being fixed for over a decade at RM1,200.

However, padi farmers group Pertubuhan Persaudaraan Pesawah Malaysia (PeSawah) insisted that this was insufficient and called for a further RM300 incentive to be distributed to padi farmers.

PeSawah also said the root of the issue was that the price of local white rice had not been reviewed for 17 years, remaining at RM2.60 per kg since 2008.

This has not changed with Anwar’s government, with Mohamad earlier announcing that the price ceiling for local white rice would be maintained at RM2.60 per kg.

Putrajaya will spend RM150 million to subsidise the prices as well as to produce 24 million 10kg sacks of local white rice.