This ministry is also known as the Kementerian Pertanian & Industry Asas Tani Malaysia. The MOA had its name changed to the current title on March 27, 2004. The ministry serves as an agency for private agricultural businesses to get advised by experts that specialize in agriculture, fishing, and livestock.
Agriculture in Malaysia makes up twelve percent of the nation's GDP. Sixteen percent of the population of Malaysia is employed through some sort of agriculture. Large-scale plantations were established by the British. These plantations opened opportunity for new crops such as rubber (1876), palm oil (1917), and cocoa (1950). A number of crops are grown for domestic purpose such as bananas, coconuts, durian, pineapples, rice, rambutan.