MADA, KADA start padi land consolidation scheme

SERDANG, Aug 6 (Bernama) -- The Kemubu Agricultural Development Authority (KADA) in Kelantan and Muda Agricultural Development Authority (MADA) in Kedah have started implementing the padi land consolidation policy to realise the government's desire to introduce large-scale rice farming.

Agriculture and Agro-based Industry Minister Datuk Salahuddin Ayub said the two authorities have started to draw up the action plan for the implementation which, among others, focuses on increasing the national padi output to achieve the self-sufficiency level (SSL).

"The modernisation of the padi sector must be in line with the latest developments as most farmers only own one or two hectares of land,” he said at a media conference in conjunction with the launch of the National Padi Farmers Conference 2019 here today.

Therefore, he said, through several land consolidation schemes, the agricultural land would be expanded to between 10 and 50 hectares for the privately-owned land.

“If there are any interested private companies, we can open up land as large as 100 hectares to 1,000 hectares to be worked on,” he said.  

Meanwhile, he said the current yield of padi fields only averaged around four to five metric tonnes per hectare per season and this will not help farmers emerge from the B40 (bottom 40 per cent by household income) group.

Therefore, he said, the new padi varieties, RC2 and RC8 developed by Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia and PadiU Putra developed by Universiti Putra Malaysia, which have proven to yield around eight to 14 metric tonnes per hectare are expected to increase the total padi yield of the country.

“This proves that we can not only increase the national SSL from the current 70 per cent to 75 per cent in five years but, more importantly, boost the farmers’ income,” he said.

-- BERNAMA