Irrigation problem affects 1,000 Sungai Manik farmers

TELUK INTAN: About 1,000 farmers in the Sungai Manik state contituency near here are worred that they are unable to cultivate their paddy fields due to drainage problems even though the planting season has started.
A check by Bernama revealed that the farmers complained the water distributed by the Drainage and Irrigation Department (DID) could not irrigate their paddy fields because the ditches were poorly maintained.
They claimed the ditches and canals used to irrigate excess water were poorly maintained since the Integrated Agriculture Development Area (IADA) took over maintenance from DID about three years ago.
Farmer Ayob Zakaria, 56, said the paddy cultivation could not be done when there is water in the fields for fear that paddy plants were be affected besides facing the threat of pests such as snails.
Ayob, who is also Kampung Sungai Tunku Sungai Manik headman, estimated about 30% out of the 2,023ha of the paddy planting area managed to get water supply.
"Every month, we (headmen from Sungai Manik) hold the village security development committee (JKKK) meeting and the same issue is often highlighted to IADA representatives, who said there is no provision for it," he claimed.
Sabri Sulaiman, 48, who is Sungai Manik Lama Kiri JKKK member, said 80% of the farmers in the areas frequently complained about the problem.
"According to the schedule, generally the farmers should have sow paddy seeds by July," he said.
DID and the Agriculture Department have set irrigation to be carried out twice on Jan 1 and July 1 with water sourced from Sungai Batang Padang.
Kampung Sungai Manik Lama Kanan headman, Azhar Kassim, 49, who cultivates a 4ha paddy field, said some of the farmers were forced to fork out additional capital to pump water into their fields.
He suggested that IADA provides permanent pumps to help farmers obtain water supply from the ditches if drought struck.
Meanwhile state Public Utilities, Infrastructure, Energy and Water Committee chairman Datuk Zainol Fadzi Paharudin expressed his disappointment with IADA for using the lack of allocation as an excuse for not taking any immediate action.
"I view this issue seriously as the farmers have informed me about the situation ever since the management of the maintainance was taken over by IADA," said Zainol, who is also Sungai Manik assemblyman. — Bernama