IPOH, Dec 2 (Bernama) — The Perak government has sought the cooperation of the Northern Corridor Implementation Authority (NCIA) to study ways of increasing padi yield in the Kerian district to 6.5 metric tonne per hectare by 2020, from 3.5 metric tonne per hectare currently.

Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Dr Zambry Abdul Kadir said this was part of the efforts taken by the state government to overcome the problem facing padi farmers in Kerian.

“Apart from that, the state government also implemented a programme to neutralise the padi field to overcome the problem of “sour padi field”,” he said in response to a question by Sham Mat Sahat (BN-Alor Pongsu) in the State Assembly today.

He said the government had also funds for various programmes, like RM1,000 per hectare for land levelling, padi technology (RM500 per hectare),”petak sawah gemilang” (RM2,500 per hectare) and rehabilitation of abandoned land (RM20,000 per hectare).

On Arowana fish breeding, Zambry said the industry was being monitored to ensure that it did not adversely affect padi farming, especially in the state”s rice bowl area of Kerian-Sungai Manik.

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ASSEMBLY-PERAK 2 (LAST) IPOH

Meanwhile, a verbal exchange took place between Zambry and Datuk Ngeh Koo Ham (DAP-Sitiawan) when the latter wanted to intervene as the former was responding to a question by Datuk Seri Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin (PAS-Pasir Panjang) on the percentage of adult (akil baligh) Muslims who performed the five compulsory prayers a day.

Zambry then requested all the non-Muslim assemblyman not to speak on the issue of the prayer in Islam because it concerned the faith of the Muslims.

— BERNAMA