The way forward: Farmers attending to their harvest at a padi field in Sekinchan. — FAIHAN GHANI/The Star
KLANG: For padi farmers like Yap Kam Phua, a pioneering padi cultivation method introduced in Sekinchan in 2023 has brought them higher yields.
The harvest, he said, had doubled from the previous five to six tonnes per hectare since the Sekinchan-style Large Scale Smart Padi Field (Smart SBB) initiative began.
“We used to suffer due to the low yield, but this method has changed all that.
“With the Smart SBB method, we also have time to do other things to supplement our income,’’ he said in an interview.
Yap said that many farmers were now reaping a higher yield by cultivating a hybrid variety of padi seeds from China.
“We can hit 14 tonnes per hectare by using the hybrid padi seeds.
“However, it is quite expensive. It costs about RM30 to RM40 per kg compared to the local variety which costs RM65 for a 25kg sack,’’ he said.
In January last year, then Agriculture and Food Security Ministry secretary-general Datuk Lokman Hakim Ali said that the Smart SBB would be extended to other padi cultivation areas in the country.
He noted then that 17 areas in Perlis, Kedah, Kelantan and Terengganu were already using the method.
Sekinchan assemblyman Datuk Ng Suee Lim, who is a prime mover in upgrading his constituency’s padi production, said the high yield smart method was the way forward for padi cultivation and rice processing industries.
Under the Smart SSB method, he said the old system of manually cultivating rice had been discarded and replaced by machines such as the usage of transplanters to sow padi seeds.
“With this method, there is a wider space between plants and this makes weedy rice (padi angin) easily visible and prevented from growing in tandem with the padi plant,’’ he said when contacted.
Weedy rice is a type of weed which resembles padi and “competes” with the real plant for nutrients and water.
Ng said that drones are used to sprinkle fertiliser and pesticide without much labour required on the field to care for the crops.
“When too many people go into the padi fields to manage and take care of the plants, there is a possibility they will be bringing in bacteria and infection which will adversely affect the crops,’’ he said.
Malaysia Padi Farmers Brotherhood Association (PeSawah) chairman Abdul Rashid Yob praised the Smart SBB method and said its emergence was timely.
However, he cautioned that the method might not be smoothly implemented in other areas compared to Sekinchan, Selangor.
“Sekinchan has a systematic infrastructure, but in places like Kedah, where I am, the padi fields are old, inherited land which have been in use for many decades,’’ said Abdul Rashid.
Hence, he said, many of these fields were “dehydrated” and lacked sufficient water to grow healthy padi plants.
“The authorities have to review the current ageing infrastructure. They may need to put in tube wells to enhance the water supply to the fields.
“We need to have a systematic irrigation method like what Sekinchan has for the Smart SBB to have efficacy in other areas.’’
Abdul Rashid said the state authorities must also look at ways to stop the flow of water into the sea and to “recycle” it so that the precious resource could make its way into the padi fields instead.
