ALOR STAR: Rejab Saad, 70, gazed helplessly at his padi field, now submerged under floodwaters for the past 10 days, turning the area into a stagnant lake.
The continuous heavy rainfall, which triggered severe flooding across much of Kedah on Nov 28, has dealt another blow to padi farmers in the state, which is responsible for the largest share of rice production in Malaysia.
"This level of flooding hasn't happened in years. The last major one was back in 2014, but even then, it wasn't as bad as this," said the experienced farmer, inspecting the floodwaters across his 8.5-hectare padi field, which had been supporting his family.
"The water hasn't fully receded yet, so we can't assess the damage completely. It'll take about a week. Each 'relong' (0.7 acre of padi plot) requires five to six bags of seeds, costing RM70 each, so the expenses are significant. I'm grateful I hadn't applied fertiliser yet, or the losses would have been much worse," he added, resigned to the fate of his submerged fields.
Rejab's son, Saiful Rizal, 46, who has been helping him on the land, attributed the prolonged flooding to incomplete flood mitigation projects nearby.
"The rain here wasn't as heavy as in inland areas like Changlun and Kuala Nerang, but the water flowed down and stagnated here because the flood mitigation project wasn't completed.
"If it had been finished, the water could have drained faster to the sea, and while flooding might still happen, it wouldn't have been this severe. Farmers need this issue resolved quickly," he said.
Rejab and Saiful are among the 900 padi farmers in the Kuala Sungai Area Farmers' Organisations (PPK) unit facing possible significant losses.
The farmers, managing a total of 4,573 relong (1,358 hectares), are helpless as their month-old crops are submerged.
They are part of the thousands of padi farmers in Kedah and Perlis under the Muda Agriculture Development Authority (Mada) affected by the second-worst floods the state has seen since September.
For some, the devastation is compounded by the loss of crops that were just days away from harvest when the September floods hit.
Yesterday, Mada chairman Datuk Dr Ismail Salleh said that about 16,000 hectares of padi fields under Mada's purview were affected by the recent floods, a larger area compared to the 6,000 hectares damaged in the September floods.
He said the true extent of the losses would only be known once an impact survey was completed.
Rejab and Saiful are hoping for sufficient compensation from the Padi Crop Takaful Scheme (PCTS) to restart the replanting process.
Farmers enrolled in the scheme are entitled to full compensation for their losses.
Ismail was reported as saying that the PCTS offered more comprehensive coverage than the Padi Crop Disaster Fund (TBTP), including protection against pesticide attacks on crops.
Additionally, he said PCTS had no limit on compensation for padi fields, unlike TBTP, which restricts compensation to three hectares per farmer.
Mada is working with PPK units to encourage all farmers to sign up for the scheme, so they can benefit from the RM50 million allocated by the government for the first year of the programme.