MARANG: Twenty-five farmers in a paddy group farming project in Kampung Barat and Kampung Tuman Pengkalan Berangan here suffered losses amounting to RM50,400 when their crop was destroyed to floods last week.
A farmer, Mohd Fadzly Jaafar, 44, said the heavy rain caused 0.8 hectare of his paddy plot (out of the 12-hectare involved in the group farming project) to be flooded and damaged the crop which had ripened and ready to be harvested.
“The paddy planting began last October and the crop was ready for harvesting, with the expected crop yield of about 3,000 to 4,000 kilogrammes of padi, worth between RM4,500 and RM6,000.
“It is sad to think about the loss, but the flood was unexpected,” he said when met by reporters here.
Mohd Fadzly said it was the first flood he experienced since he ventured into paddy farming nine years ago.
Another farmer, Mohd Pauza Abdul Rahman, 55, said although the flood affected only a hectare of his two-hectare paddy plot, he still hoped for assistance from the authorities to recover the losses.
He said staff from the State Agriculture Department visited the site recently and assessed the loss at RM1,680 per acre.
“We hope that this assistance can be expedited, we can use the fund to plant the next crop,” he added.
Meanwhile, Pengkalan Berangan Assemblyman Sulaiman Sulong said the group farming project involved 50 paddy farmers, but only 25 of them suffered losses due to the flood as their paddy plots were in the low-lying area.
The affected paddy farmers are those with paddy plots in Kampung Bukit Kulim, Bukit Gading, Kampung Tuman and Bukit Jejulong.
“I have asked them to complete the application for assistance from the State Agriculture Department, while the assistance from the state government will be channelled through the Agricultural Disaster Fund as soon as possible,“ he added. — Bernama