Agriculture, forestry, and fishing once formed the basis of the Malaysian economy, but between 1970 and the early 21st century their contribution to the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) declined from roughly one-third to less than one-tenth. Similarly, the proportion of the labour force engaged in agriculture decreased from about one-half to less than one-eighth over the same time span, and the trend has continued.

The main food crop, rice, is grown on small farms. Despite the widespread advances brought about by the introduction of improved plant varieties and chemical fertilizers and pesticides (the so-called Green Revolution of the 1960s and ’70s), rice production declined steadily during the second half of the 20th century. The main causes of this decline were unfavourable weather conditions and the loss of farm labour to urban manufacturing jobs. Increasingly deficient in rice production, the country has been forced to make up the shortfall with imports, chiefly from Thailand. Consequently, the government has taken measures to raise its self-sufficiency in rice, largely by implementing programs to consolidate smallholdings and to increase labour productivity through group farming schemes; by 2000 production had begun to rise, despite the continued labour shortage.

Rubber and palm oil are the dominant cash crops. Although the contribution of rubber to GDP has declined significantly since the mid-20th century, rubber production remains important and closely tied to domestic manufacturing. Palm oil plantations have proliferated since the 1970s, to some degree at the expense of rubber plantations. By the early 21st century, Malaysia had become one of the world’s top producers of palm oil. Other common cash crops include cocoa, pepper, coffee, tea, various fruits, and coconuts.

The extensive forests of both Peninsular Malaysia and East Malaysia are heavily exploited for their timber. The lowland evergreen tropical rain forest, rich in species of the economically valuable Dipterocarpaceae family, is the principal forest formation of commercial importance. Sarawak and Sabah account for the greater part of all timber production. Concern has been raised, however, about the pace of deforestation caused by the combination of shifting agriculture and intensive logging operations in East Malaysia. Attempts have been made to curtail log exports from the region and to substitute wood-based industries, such as the manufacture of plywood and furniture. Logging remains important in Peninsular Malaysia, although much of the easily accessible timber has been cut. The region also has a long history of careful forest management and conservation. The government in 2005 launched a forest plantation scheme—part of a sustainability initiative pitched to the private sector—to plant lands primarily with rubberwood but also with acacia, teak, and an easily workable hardwood called sentang.

Historically, most of Malaysia’s fish catch has been from the shallow seas off its coasts, where the water’s nutrient levels—and hence its productivity—generally have been low. In the 1970s the country’s fishing industry was improved and expanded, notably by the addition of trawlers and mechanized fishing boats. This allowed the more abundant offshore fish resources to be tapped, leading to a dramatic increase in catches. Malaysia has become a major fishing country, even though production peaked in about 1980 and much of the fishing industry has remained confined to the overexploited shallow onshore waters. As a result, the government has actively promoted deep-sea fishing and aquaculture production. Although the latter industry has been rather slow to develop, by the early 21st century more than one-tenth of Malaysia’s fish yield came from aquaculture.