KOTA KINABALU: Kampung Tambatuon in Kota Belud has become the first village in the country to produce fragrant Keladi rice (Beras Keladi Wangi) organically.
The rice from the village located about 112 kilometres from here fetches RM10 per 500gm with attractive packaging.
The organic paddy farming involves 22 farmers on 1.2 hectares of land and eight tonnes of the rice are harvested once a year.
One of the farmers, Francis Mali, said he and four others pioneered the organic 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 to encourage the villagers to practice eating healthy food.
“As we started to venture into organic farming, the villagers were skeptical of the farming technique, but as the years went by, more farmers showed interest and now there are 22 of us,” he said.
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 development programmes implemented in the area under the ministry.
He added that the project in Kampung Tambatuon is a pilot one before being expanded to several other villages in Kota Belud, namely, Kampung Kelawat, Taginambur and Tamu Darat.- Bernama
