He said the issue is affecting productivity and the country’s ability to sustain domestic food production.
“To ensure the sector’s sustainability, we must attract more youths to agriculture.
“Without a skilled and competitive younger generation, our goal of reducing import dependence and ensuring national food security will be difficult to achieve,” he said at the launch of the 2024 Agriculture Census interim report today.
The report showed that 45.4% of individual agricultural operators are aged 60 and above, while only 22.2% are aged between 15 and 45. Another 32.3% are aged 46 to 59.
Fadillah said better incentives, the use of modern technology, and efforts to improve the image of farming as a career are needed to attract younger talent.
Chief statistician Uzir Mahidin said Sabah recorded the highest number of young farmers, totalling 6,180, aged 15 to 30, followed by Perak (5,149) and Sarawak (3,583).
For farmers aged 60 and above, Sarawak topped the list with 63,452, followed by Kedah (61,886) and Sabah (57,007).
Uzir said agriculture remains a key part of Malaysia’s economy, not just for food supply but also for supporting the processing industry, creating jobs and raising household incomes, particularly among farmers.
He said the agriculture census will now be conducted every 10 years, with shorter, interim surveys starting in 2026 to provide more timely data. The last agriculture census was carried out 19 years ago.
Also launched at the event was the TaniStats portal, which aims to improve access to agriculture-related data for farmers, policymakers and stakeholders. It includes platforms such as TaniFacts, myFoodStats, myAgrochain and the MyAgroPrice dashboard.
The dashboard provides monthly price data for 60 selected agricultural products at farm, wholesale and retail levels, according to states, from 2020 to 2024.
Fadillah said this would help farmers plan marketing strategies and assist policymakers in tracking price trends and designing targeted interventions.
Data from the statistics department showed that Malaysia imported 60% of its food supply in 2022. Only 24 local agricultural items recorded growth in production that year, compared with 28 in 2021.