HOW MUCH RICE CULTIVARED IN MALAYSIA?

I am asked about how much rice cultivated in Malaysia. The best answers is to check the Ministry of Agriculture statistic annually for the answers. But actually in the paddy and rice industry, it is important to know the actual total area planted with paddy and the growth stage for each paddy plot. This helps to provide accurate measurement of yield, land use prediction, farm monitoring, and to predict the expected harvest. In addition, accurate and up-to-date paddy data are especially important during events such as natural disasters to allow the authorities to predict yield loss and end-ofseason harvest. Furthermore, it helps avoide leakages in the input subsidies; whereby ghost lands can be prevented20. This, in turn, allows prompt and effective policy and management decisions as well as appropriate downstream market responses. According to the Rancangan Fizikal Negara ke-3, the allocation of land for paddy cultivation was designated as kawasan jelapang padi or granary areas. Initially, there were eight granary areas, which have now been expanded to 10. The largest granary area is MADA. Recent data made available is on 201621 whereby a total parcel of 100,603 Ha in MADA was planted with paddy, producing a total of 1.1m MT of paddy at a yield of 5.3 MT/Ha. The data needed to generate this information involves on-site checks and individual information from the farmers which can be laborious, costly, prone to error and time-consuming. KRI explored the use of satellite technology to enable quick, accurate and transparent determination of the total planted area. Publicly-available satellite images covering the MADA area from ESA Sentinel-1A satellite were analysed22. The captured images were taken between March and August for the years 2015 and 2016. This corresponds to the paddy planting season (Musim 1) in the MADA area. 

The paddy plant is a unique short-term crop with a maturity period of 90 - 140 days post germination. Within this period, it undergoes physically distinct life-stages that can be seen in two-week intervals. On the contrary, the physical characteristics of a permanent water body, such as a lake, a road, an oil palm estate, a forest, a home or a football field stay the same over the same two-week intervals. Therefore, theoretically, a satellite image shooting a light beam (of a certain wavelength) over a cultivated paddy plot should be able to detect the physical changes of a paddy plant over time and have it differentiated from a non-paddy surface. The use of this technology in paddy cultivation is demonstrated through the use of Sentinel-1A by researchers in IRRI23. KRI researchers stacked several Sentinel 1-A satellite images of the same MADA area that are about 2 weeks apart for each planting season. In the stacked image, colours indicate changes in the land surface area over time, while whitegrey areas are surfaces that did not change over the same period. This work is currently being written for a technical publication. In due course, it is hoped that the public can access the data from the KRI website and expand the use of satellite imagery for live updates of paddy cultivation. That is an advance technology to grow rice in future!. Thanks.

By,

M Anem,

Senior Agronomist,

Tamana Cendana, Bandar Melaka,

Melaka, Malaysia.

(30 Syaaban 1440H).

MALAYSIA - TALK ABOUT RICE INDUSTRY

Our Rice industry in Malaysia considered an important sector by government. In 2016, Malaysia’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was RM1,196.4b, whereby the agriculture, forestry and fisheries sectors contributed only RM106.5 billion (8.9%)16. Within agriculture, palm oil was the biggest contributor at RM41.9 billion (40.2%), while paddy contributed only RM2.4billion (2.3%). Indeed, palm oil has always been a bigger contributor to the national GDP and this can be seen over time, as the oil palm harvested area has increased tremendously while the paddy harvested area remained relatively constant.

Despite the paddy and rice industry having a small contribution towards the nation’s GDP, it has garnered much interest from policymakers given its complex relationship with food security, culture and socio-economic factors. This is motivated by the increasing national demand for rice at the back of a constant size of the harvested area. In fact, the OECD-FAO Agricultural Outlook report projected a widening gap between Malaysia’s production and consumption of rice. For domestic paddy production, Malaysia relies primarily on ten key granary areas for its supply of paddy. In 2016, the nation produced a total of 2.7m MT of paddy. Out of this, 2.0m MT or 74.1% of the total paddy produced was from the granary areas. Muda Argricultural Development Authority (MADA), in the Northern Peninsular of Malaysia, produced about 38.8% of the total national paddy production and is known as the ‘Rice Bowl’ of the nation, followed by Kemubu Agricultural Development Authority (KADA) at 9.1% and Integrated Agricultural Development Area (IADA) Barat Laut Selangor (BLS) at 8.1%. Given the differences in their locations (different environmental conditions), farm practices and various other factors, these granary areas have different levels of farm yield. The national average yield is around 4.0 MT/Ha with high performing areas such as IADA Barat Laut Selangor, IADA Pulau Pinang, IADA Ketara and MADA, having yields above 5.0 MT/Ha. On the contrary, granaries such as IADA Pekan and Rompin are among the low yield producers, with yields below 3.0 MT/Ha. Thanks.

By,

M Anem,

Senior Agronomist,

Taman Cendana, Bukit Beruang,

Melaka, Malaysia.

(30 Syaaban 1440H).

DRONES FOR SPRAYING ARE SAFE

An agricultural drone is an unmanned aerial vehicle applied to farming in order to help increase crop production and monitor crop growth. Through the use of advanced sensors and digital imaging capabilities, farmers are able to use these drones to help them gather a richer picture of their fields. The POLA-V15S (PV15S) is assembled locally in Malaysia using top grade components and DJI’s flagship flight controller (See photo above). The PV15S has been built with operational efficiency in mind by pilots with years of experience with crop spraying, and has been tested locally to achieve upwards of 3Ha/hr of coverage. It features a 15L tank with variable spray rate and interchangeable nozzles, and is fully autonomous without the need of expert piloting skills to achieve optimal results. Through field experience, the team at Poladrone recognises that after-sales support and warranty is the key to a successful crop spraying business. As such, we provide a comprehensive training course for 3-5 days with any purchase of a drone. All our drones comes with a one (1) year manufacturer warranty on all electronics components, supported by a 20,000 square feet manufacturing facility in Selangor. We promise to hold ready stock of ALL spare parts locally, enabling us to replace or repair any broken down in an extremely short time frame vs imported products.

In other reports from Alor Setar, Kedah, the use of drones for aerial spraying of the pesticides in paddy fields will not harm the environment, human and animals, said Muda Agriculture Development Authority (Mada) chairman Datuk Othman Aziz today. He said Mada has taken into consideration the impact in the use of drone for aerial spraying and assured that it will be carried out in a controlled environment and manned by trained handlers. Othman said Mada would begin using drone to spray pesticides in the coming planting season that is expected to begin between this month and April. “The drone will fly between two and three metres from the ground and within the paddy plot so the pesticide will no spread elsewhere,” he said to reporters after launching the drone at MadaCorp Agroservices Sdn Bhd here today. Othman was commenting on a statement by Consumers Association of Penang (CAP) which has voiced its objection on the use of drones for pesticides spraying. CAP president S M Mohamed Idris had claimed that aerial spraying of pesticide will cause serious air pollution and causes other health issues associated with pesticides more easily and widely. Othman pointed out that Mada has conducted trial run for the drone in Pendang and it showed that the pesticide was evenly spread in the paddy area. He added the trial run also showed that the aerial spraying is well controlled and did not affect the surrounding area. Othman said for the pilot project, Mada will be using 10 drones on 2,000 hectares of paddy land under its purview. Thank You...

By,

M Anem,

Senior Agronomist,

Taman Cendana, Malacca City,

Melaka, Malaysia.

(1 Muharram 1440H).