Ecology of traditional padi farming in west Malaysia.

Abstract

The Kelantan-Trengganu marginal hills and the upper and middle Perak region have, besides wet padi, upland padi including that grown by shifting cultivation. The Kelantan-Trengganu alluvial plain is a large wet-padi region, while in the Kedah marginal plain padi is grown only in small mountain valleys. In these two regions the plough is very widely used. The traditional farming of the west coastal plain is characterised by the use of the tajak, or heavy metal blade for land preparation, and double transplanting. The Melaka-Negrisembilan-Kuala Lipis zone is a southern extension of the Kedah marginal plain, made up of a series of small mountain valleys. In this region the changkul, or hoe, is more widely used than the plough. In the middle and lower Pahang region, padi fields occupy the small branch-stream valleys of the Pahang river, forming scattered small clusters. The main tools for land preparation are the tajak and the parang, vestiges of the earlier shifting cultivation. The plough is used in the Kelantan-Trengganu alluvial plain and the Kedah marginal plain since soil conditions are suited to plough operation in these fluvial plains. The rest of West Malaysia is dominated by swamp, and here the tajak is most suitable for preparing the land for transplanting, since the soil in the swampy lowland is too loose and full of woody debris for plough operation. -Authors