I REFER to the report “Experts to keep watch on prices” (NST, April 20) in which the prime minister said that “a large swathe of land in Sarawak will be turned into intensive padi-cultivation area to wean the country off imports”.

The move to develop a new area for intensive padi cultivation will have distinct advantages over rehabilitating old padi-farming areas.

Proper and effective quarantine measures can be undertaken at the outset to prevent the introduction of disease-causing pathogens, parasites and pests that are endemic in the old traditional padi-cultivation areas, which can cause enormous losses in production.

In a large area, modern farming methods, proper irrigation and mechanisation of farming processes can be cost-effectively carried out to maximise production.

It has been suggested that unused padi land in the peninsula (that has been fallow for a long time) could be rehabilitated.

The land may have inherent problems, which would make it impossible to turn back such land to padi farming.

One of the problems in redeveloping these traditional padi lands is that the holding owned by an individual padi landowner is small.

Small landholdings do not lend themselves to farm mechanisation.

Developing a large swathe of new land in Sarawak for padi cultivation remains the best way to achieve self-sufficiency in rice production and represents a giant step forward in the all-important objective of achieving food security.

M. GANESHADEVA, Kuala Lumpur

Source: NST – April 30, 2008