40,000 tonnes of rice yield affected by drought

KOTA BARU: Rice yield in Kelantan is expected to drop by about 40,000 tonnes due to the drought in the state.

Kemubu Agricultural Development Authority (Kada) chairman Muhammad Hussin said 5,000ha out of 9,100ha of padi fields in the state have been affected, where the padi is cracked and badly damaged.

He said the Kemubu pumping house is unable to operate as the water level is only at 2.48m compared to the required 3.5m.

“Most of those affected are farmers in the northern and southern parts of Kota Baru, who depend on the Kemubu pumping station. In these areas, the padi cannot be saved,” he told reporters after performing Solat Sunat Istisqa (prayer) with 300 padi farmers at the Kemubu pumping station in Ketereh here yesterday, Bernama reported.

Muhammad said Kada has also helped padi farmers with efforts to build tube wells at a cost of RM500,000, channelled by the Agriculture and Food Security Ministry, but the building process is quite difficult because some areas do not have water sources.

“Additionally, Kada lacks workers to construct the tube wells. We had to ask for help from operators from Terengganu,” he said.

Muhammad added that lack of water sources in the padi fields would be resolved after the third Kemubu pumping station is completed in June next year.

On March 26, Terengganu agriculture, agro-based industry, food security and commodities committee chairman Dr Azman Ibrahim said the state government had frozen permits for transferring padi out of the state.

He said the directive was among the control mechanisms to prevent locally-produced rice from being sold to other states.

However, the Padi and Rice Regulatory Authority (KPB) said the authority to freeze permits for interstate padi movement lies under the Control of Padi and Rice Act 1994, through the functions of the KPB director-general.