PARIT BUNTAR, Jan 13 — The Farmers’ Organisation Authority (FOA) has suggested that matching grants be given to rice farmers to own small-scale rice mills to overcome the shortage of local white rice.

Its director-general Datuk Azulita Salim said the matching grants would allow farmers to plant their own rice and process it with milling machines costing around RM5,000 a unit.

“This (matching grant) is one way we can introduce so that farmers can own small machines, at least the shortage of local white rice can be mitigated through planting our own rice or eating the rice we planted ourselves.

“The rice milling machine can produce 2.5 kilogrammes of good quality rice (per cycle),” she told reporters after a working visit to the Tanjung Piandang FOA rice purchasing centre here today.

She also shared that three certified rice milling plants — in Kubur Panjang, Kedah, Simpang Lima, Parit Buntar and Sungai Burung in Selangor — will hopefully help overcome the shortage of local white rice in the country when they are fully operational.

“For now, we only have one certified rice mill at Lahar Bubu in Penang that can process about 5,000 metric tons of certified rice seeds annually but this is inadequate as we have 240,000 farmers and they need 72,000 metric tons annually,” she said.

In other developments, Azulita said FAO would bring up the issue of poor soil conditions in Kerian that caused failed rice harvests with the Agriculture and Food Security Ministry

“I feel the ministry is concerned about this issue, so let us discuss it first... so that the ministry can provide suitable allocation to assist farmers affected by this,” she said.

Perak Rural, Plantation, Agriculture and Food Industry Committee chairman Datuk Mohd Zolkafly Harun was quoted in November as stating that poor soil conditions that affected 595 hectares of rice fields in Kerian had resulted in failed harvests and losses to farmers as heavy machinery could not be used as they ended up stuck in the wet soil.

Such situations have yet to be gazetted as disasters at either state or federal level under the Rice Crop Disaster Fund, he added. — Bernama