Sept 29 (Bernama) -- It is cheaper for affluent Asian countries like Malaysia to import rice but to safeguard the national security, they should produce their own rice, a Malaysian academician said Friday.

"It is dangerous to depend on others to produce rice (which is the staple food of the Asian people).

"We cannot put a price on everything in terms of dollars and cents. We have to take into account our national sovereignty, peace and security," Associate Professor Dr Syed Omar Syed Rastan, a deputy dean at Universiti Pertanian Malaysia (UPM), said in an interview here.

"Our people will be deprived of rice if there is war in the region. Rice is our staple food and we cannot go without it. A lot of people will go hungry. That is why the Japanese are still producing their own rice even though the cost of production is high."

Syed Omar said Malaysia's move to increase the production of local rice over the next four years to meet 90 per cent of domestic demand should be supported by the people.

The government recently approved two monetary incentives for rice cultivators to increase production. The incentives include fertiliser and pesticides to farmers and a RM650 bonus for those who produce more than 10 tonnes of rice per season. Malaysia imports rice mainly from Thailand, Vietnam and India to meet a shortage of about 30 per cent annually. -- BERNAMA