Increasing Sabah’s padi yield

Published on: Sunday, September 24, 2023

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Padi growing in Malaysia.

THE announcement to immediately implement large scale rice planting in Sabah by Federal and State Ministries is most welcome. There must be millions of acres of paddy land that have been abandoned for many many years.

The revival of these paddy areas will create employment and reduce the dependence on rice imports, ultimately saving valuable foreign exchange for our country.

With the resurrection of the Sabah Paddy Board and the long standing Federal subsidy, reportedly based on RM4,000 per ton of paddy, surely Sabah will achieve the target of planting at least 90pc of all its abandoned rice fields.

The prospect of revitalizing these abandoned rice fields holds immense promise for our state. The ripple effect of this rice planting revival will extend far beyond the fields themselves.

Planting rice in Sabah is most advance and modern or so they think. Soil preparation is by agriculture tractors, chemical fertilizers and harvester machine. A few machines were imported in the past and after less than a year – all were “hangkang” (unusable).

In other countries such as China, Philippines, Indonesia and Brazil, they still manage using water buffaloes, organic fertilisers and only partially harvest using machines. Maybe the solution is getting back to basics.

Regardless the Federal and State subsidies, there is still very little paddy planting going on in Sabah. The one success story is Yap Yun Fook Enterprises at an abandoned government project in Kinabatangan.

It is actually easy to establish whether subsidies yield the required outcome as it is similar for paddy and rubber. One just simply need to take the total subsidy paid and compare it to the production, no rocket science required. It is common knowledge that after paddy and rubber subsidies are paid, actual production is neglected.

The supervising authority simply makes the subsidy payments then wish for the best. It is, therefore, high time for the Federal and State Governments to get serious about subsidies and check results on the ground.

Sarawak took an extreme and, personally, wrong approach when they banned the taking out of “Bario Rice”.

Sarawak should, instead, encourage Bario rice farmers to grow more rather than disallow visitors from buying and taking Bario rice out of Sarawak.

Years ago, the Johor government blamed Singaporeans for buying their fish and vegetables which resulted in shortages for Johor itself.

Singapore responded by saying the Johor government should instead encourage its fishermen and farmers to catch more fish and grow more vegetables which will also better their own livelihoods.

Anyway we shall hope for the best. Rice planting can immediately start in Tambunan and Keningau. These two districts have more than 50,000 acres of abandoned rice fields.

It takes only three months from planting rice to harvest. By January 2024, Sabahans should have Sabah rice available in shops instead of just imported rice.

Sabahan

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