KOTA KINABALU: Kampung Tambatuon in Kota Belud has become the first village in the country to produce Wangi Keladi rice variety organically.
The Wangi Keladi rice, from the village located about 112 kilometres from here is sold in the market commercially for RM10 for 500 grams with attractive packaging.
The organic paddy farming involves 22 farmers on 1.2 hectares of land and eight tonnes of Wangi Keladi rice were harvested once a year.
One of the farmers, Francis Mali, said he and four others pioneered the organic paddy farming since 2014.
“The move started after we were exposed to organic paddy farming by the Partners of Community Organisation (Pacos Trust),” he told Bernama here.
According to him, they are keen to take up organic paddy farming without any chemical fertilizers to encourage the villagers to practice healthy eating.
“As we started to venture into organic farming, the villagers were not very convinced with the farming technic, but as the years went by, more farmers showed their interest, and now we have grown to 22 farmers,” he added.
He said the Ministry of Agriculture and Agro-based Industry (MOA) under the Kota Belud Integrated Agricultural Development Areas (IADA) programme has provided a good deal of assistance to facilitate the organic farming efforts in the village.
“IADA provided guidance and infrastructure for the rice field as well as packaging to marketing promotion,” he said. Meanwhile, Kota Belud IADA assistant agriculture officer Fredrick Jamari said organic paddy farming in Kampung Tambatuon was among the paddy farming development programmes implemented in the area under the ministry.