With the state’s economic development remaining broad, closer balancing of land use becomes more critical.
Seberang Perai has undergone much urbanisation over the last decade. This has led to concerns over land use: warehouses, industrial plants and housing have risen up in the municipality’s landscape, replacing its sprawling paddy fields. As land cost at designated industrial townships such as Perai, Bukit Mertajam and Nibong Tebal rises, cheaper farmland at the fringes become the next best option for expansion.
However, even with this rapid industrialisation, agriculture still remains the dominant sector in Seberang Perai, with over 50,000 hectares zoned as land for agricultural use in the State Structure Plan (RSN) 2020, making up 54.4% of land use in Seberang Perai, while 12.4% of the land use is designated for paddy farming.1
In 2016 Penang produced 148,297 metric tons of rice – among the highest in the country; annually, Penang is in the top three states that record the highest rice production per annum.
Most of Penang’s rice production comes from Seberang Perai. Nor Wahida Hassan, the assistant director of operations at the Penang State Department of Agriculture (JPNPP), confirms that the intensity of rice production in Penang is due to the state’s leading technology, infrastructure, and research and development initiatives in paddy farming.
JPNPP’s core business is in training local farmers to adopt good agricultural practices, which is promoted through the Malaysian Good Agricultural Practices (MyGAP) certification. The state department also supports the community with various paddy crop development programmes by providing agricultural input, such as fertilisers and semi-organic pest control, and drainage infrastructure in the paddy fields.
JPNPP works closely with other governmental agencies under the Ministry of Agriculture Incorporated , such as the Integrated Agriculture Development Area, Farmers’ Organization Authority, Kemubu Agriculture Development Authority, Malaysian Agricultural Research and Development Institute, and Federal Agricultural Marketing Authority. The collaborative nature of both state and federal agencies is deliberate and is aimed at achieving a greater objective.
