KUALA TERENGGANU: Vegetable and fruit farmers in the state are worried that their income will drop drastically if the current dry spell continues over the next few months.
Kuala Terengganu Assistant Agricultural officer Muhamad Nazri Hashim expressed concern that the El Nino phenomenon will continue until September.
“Currently, about 7,000 fruit and vegetable farmers in the state have been experiencing huge losses due to the dry season which started in March,” he said.
Fruit and vegetable farmers Idris Jusoh, 46, and Karimah Mohd, 51, are victims of the dry spell.
They said their yield has been cut by half.
“The vegetable leaves turn yellow while the cucumber becomes dry and shrinks,” said Idris.
He expressed concern that the underground water which he uses to irrigate his field may run out by September.
“We have started rationing the water and only water our vegetable and fruit plants once instead of twice a day,” he added.
Meanwhile, Universiti Malaysia Terengganu (UMT) vice-chancellor Prof Datuk Dr Nor Aieni Mokhtar said it will conduct research with the Federal Agricultural Marketing Authority (Fama) and Malaysian Agricultural Research and Development Institute (Mardi) to ensure crops can still be grown during dry spells.
“We have tried this method on the Roselle plant by reducing the water needed by almost half and it has proven to be a success,” she said at a press conference after opening the Soil Science Conference of Malaysia 2016.
