YAN: The Muda Agricultural Development Authority (MADA) encourages all padi farmers under it to join the MADA Area Farmers Organisations (PPK) in the jerami (padi stalk) recycling project through stalk bundling activities as an alternative to burning stalks.
MADA Region IV manager, Siti Syaheeda Sobbihi said there are 100,685 hectares of padi planting area in the MADA area that has the potential to produce padi stalks of approximately 500,000 tonnes.
“From 2021 to 2023, the production of padi stalks in the MADA area reached a total of 15,000 tonnes with a sales value of RM3 million comprising a planting area of 10,330 hectares involving nearly 5,000 farmers in Kedah and Perlis.
“MADA has found that side activities such as this padi stalk recycling project can also help generate additional income for PPK and the padi farmers involved,“ she told Bernama here today.
She said, if PPK and padi farmers participate in the project, it will indirectly reduce the open burning of padi stalks and facilitate the management of stalk waste in padi fields to be done more effectively and efficiently.
“Now it’s the dry season, so it’s appropriate to bundle stalks. This is to prevent padi farmers from burning openly and to protect the environment from pollution and to prevent road accidents due to burning smoke.
“That’s why MADA is doing various activities to promote the padi stalk reuse project, we want to educate the padi farmers and one of the ways is to hold a programme and announce that PPK MADA has complete and good machines and equipment to manage this project,“ he said.
In the meantime, Siti Syaheeda said that if padi farmers are involved in the project and allow PPK to bundle stalks, they will be given padi stubble cutting or ‘slashing’ for free and it will help save the operational cost of padi management which is around RM70 per hectare.
“The hay yield obtained by the PPK will then be sold to potential buyers who are mostly livestock operators. But if there are farmers who are interested in becoming hay bale entrepreneurs, they can register as MADA guidance entrepreneurs and potentially get the help of a small baler machine (mini baler) .
“To attract the interest of padi farmers and the public, MADA has also organised the Jerami Castle MADA@Jerai Geopark exhibition which is taking place from March 1 until tomorrow from 10 am to 10 pm with various activities including photo sessions with padi stalk replicas and products, horse riding , archery and sales of food and products,“ she said.
Meanwhile, Darus Ismail, 66, from Kampung Sungai Kering, said he has been involved in the straw recycling project since 2007 after the PPK in his area acquired a stalk baling machine.
He said the project added income to PPK F-IV Sungai Limau Dalam, although it could only be done during the dry season. -Bernama
