IAEA International Atomic Energy Agency : 'Nuclear Package' Helps Farmers Increase Rice Yields and Income in Northern Malaysia

Rice is a major staple food in Malaysia and a source of income for 300,000 farmers. Competition for water, extreme weather events, inadequate nutrients and fertilizer and lower yielding traditional rice varieties have compelled the need to develop new varieties and farming practices. The IAEA, in cooperation with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), assists countries around the world, including Malaysia, in adapting their agriculture practices to climate change by disseminating knowledge and best practices, providing training and fellowship programmes as well as laboratory services for researchers.

Cooperation between Nuklear Malaysia and agriculture authorities is key to the success of the project. Researchers at the nuclear agency developed the new variety by irradiating seeds, mimicking and accelerating the natural process of spontaneous mutation, and then selecting the variety with useful traits. But Nuklear Malaysia does not have the plots or the mandate to multiply the seeds and make them available to farmers beyond a pilot project. 'When farmers in the wider area see the difference between their yield and ours, they want to plant the new variety also,' Mohd Noor said. It will likely take two growing seasons before there is enough supply of seeds that it can be released to farmers, Shahrizal added.

Nurturing the right variety

Having favourable agronomic traits is a good start, but it takes more than the right variety to cope with changing weather and increase yields.

The farmers also receive an organic plant growth promoter and plant elicitor known as oligochitosan produced using irradiation at Nuklear Malaysia. This product is derived from chitin, which is found in household and agricultural waste such as the shells of crawfish, shrimp, crabs and lobsters. Chitin is turned into chitosan through a chemical process and is degraded into oligochitosan using gamma or electron beam irradiation. Its use as growth promoter reduces the need for pesticides and fertilizer by some 30%, explained Shyful Rahman, an agronomist with Nuklear Malaysia in charge of the project in Kedah.

This is important not only because it saves farmers additional expenditure, but also because it could help restore biodiversity in the region. 'Many local species, including fish have receded or completely disappeared from the area as a result of fertilizer use,' he said. 'When I was a child, we used to go fishing almost every day. I hope I can do that again when I retire.'