Thursday August 6, 2009
River repair a boon for Selangor farmers
By THO XIN YI
THE agricultural outlook for northern Selangor looks promising with the implementation of several projects by the state government with priority given to the Sungai Bernam area, the water source for many padi fields in the area.
Recently, the collapsed stretch of the riverbank was repaired and plans are in the works to widen the river to end the woes of the farmers.
“I visited this place three months ago and discovered that the collapsed bank was the cause of dry ditches during droughts over the past six years.
Green reward: Yaakob (left) and Azahar having a look at some of the fruits at the latter’s watermelon farm in Bukit Cerakah. “The water flowed into the the oil palm estate next to the collapsed bank instead of flowing downstream to the padi fields,” Selangor state agriculture, natural resources and entrepreneurial development committee chairman Yaakob Sapari said.
The RM4mil project with a two-year warranty was financed by the federal government and developed by the North West Selangor Integrated Agricultural Development Project, a body within the state government.
Yaakob inspected the site during his tour with officers from the Agriculture Department, Fisheries Department, and Drainage and Irrigation Department to a few agricultural sites.
Sungai Bernam, which marks the border of Selangor and Perak, has a feeder canal that channels water to padi fields as far as 34km away.
With the water supply problem solved, the padi farmers’ incomes stabilised with some earning as much as RM2,300 a month.
“Our target is to have each farmer earn more than RM1,000 a month and this has been achieved,” Yaakob said.
Quick fix: The collapsed river bank has been fixed and water from the peat reserve no longer flows into the river. The Agricultural Department had provided assistance that included drawing up timetables that enabled the farmers to determine when to sow and when to harvest.
The two popular rice planting methods are rice transplantor (transplanting rice seedlings into the fields) and broadcast seeding (scattering the seeds mechanically).
Other than supplying water to plantations, Sungai Bernam is also popular for fish breeding and the water quality has been taken into consideration to foster this economic activity.
“After the bank was repaired, water from the Raja Musa Peat Swamp Forest Reserve will not flow into the river any more. This used to affect the acidity of the river water and caused the fish to die,” Yaakob said.
Earlier, Yaakob also visited a watermelon farm in Bukit Cerakah, operated by Kampung Bukit Cerakah village head Azahar Sabidin.
The 26.3ha farm with seven workers produces the thirst-quenching fruits to be sold at RM1 per kg.
“It takes 70 days to grow a watermelon, and we have to keep it aside for three days to develop before selling it,” Azahar said.
Although Yaakob suggested that the ideal number of workers should be 10, Azahar said it was not easy to get locals to work in orchards.
Green fields: The padi fields in northern Selangor are now in full growth thanks to the repair of the collapsed bank. The watermelon planting effort is part of the One Village One Product programme.
In Selangor, 365 villages are participating in the programme where the villages are encouraged to concentrate on one type of produce per village.
Yaakob pointed out that there was another 20.23ha plot of land in Sungai Tengi that would be used to grow watermelons.
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