A couple of successes and a whole lot of waiting in hope mark the Northern
Corridor Economic Region project in Kedah a year after its launch, write
ELIZABETH JOHN and SANTHA OORJITHAM.

TALL, bright green and heavy with strands of grain, the stalks in Kedah's first sprawling padi estate are ready for harvest and the air is crackling with anticipation.

Years in the making, this model estate has brought together farmers and pooled fields that are managed in plots about four times the size of the National Sports Complex in Bukit Jalil.

Large scale and using the most modern techniques, the estate is meant to roughly double production to 10 tonnes per hectare by 2010.

When giant yellow harvesters crawl across these fields in Tajar next week (harvest begins around Aug 6), Omar Ismail -- who leads the 101 pioneer estate farmers -- says he'll be praying they've met the initial target of 7.5 tonnes per hectacre.
But short of a bad storm, there's little to worry about, says Zainuddin Mat Zakaria, the Muda Agriculture Development Authority (Mada) region manager who's guiding farmers.

Initial surveys show that figure can be met and bettered, he says.

The 153ha of padi fields, managed as padi mini estates in Mada's Wilayah 3 in Jelai, are divided into four plots of roughly 40ha each. Some may even yield eight to 10 tonnes per ha if all goes according to plan, says Zainuddin.

That's good news for the Northern Corridor Implementation Authority (NCIA), which oversees projects under the Northern Corridor Economic Region (NCER) masterplan.

So too, are reports that six similar estates have taken shape this planting season and dozens more will start in the next.

But in the year since the plan's launch, the estate is among few tangible results on show in Kedah, one of the four states in the NCER, even as expectations rise sky-high.

In Kampung Bukit Kura, a patchwork village of brick and wooden houses circled by rubber estates, hardcore poor families are placing their hopes in an NCER poverty alleviation project.

Piping hot curry puffs, just-picked langsat and a committee of very officially dressed villagers greet NCIA and government agency officers at their community hall where rubber tapper Hamid Yunus is eager to hear about the latest developments.

A hundred hardcore poor families given homes and resettled here in the 1990s will see the expansion of an existing feedlot cattle rearing project started by the Kedah Development Authority (Keda).

NCIA will also help villagers cultivate corn and sorghum on a large scale for cattle feed.

Villagers will be paid a salary and a share of profits through their co-operative that will act as the management body, explains Nurulhanan Abdul Jalal, vice-president of NCIA's marketing and social development division.

If the project is successful, more poor families will be resettled in this remote village, 45 kilometres from Alor Star.

"Yes, we've been waiting a long time and we're very hopeful the project will help us," says Hamid, who's listening closely to the explanation.

"With prices the way they are, what I make a day is just enough," says the father of five, who makes slightly more than the average RM500 a month for folk working on the Keda cattle rearing project.

Nurulhanan hopes the project will raise incomes to RM800 a month and that's sweet news for village head Nazeri Adenan's ears.

"We don't always want to be known as poor people. We also want to move from motorbikes to cars. Be like others," he says, adding that villagers are banking on big changes from the project.

But land preparation for the planting of corn and sorghum is only set to start in September and the NCIA is still finalising the list of participants and logistics.

When asked why projects have taken so long to get off the ground, Nurulhanan explains that the NCIA was only recently gazetted as the implementing authority.

Also, after the general election, it took time to arrange meetings and secure the co-operation of the three Opposition-controlled state governments.

And it was only last month that the NCIA received budget approval for projects.

Even Kedah Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Azizan Abdul Razak is hoping the NCIA will move faster on the projects.

"I was informed at the last meeting with the prime minister that plans would kick off in August," he says.

"I hope they work fast because there are many things we'd like to get done, especially on infrastructure."

"If they're not going to carry out some of the projects, we'd like to know, so that we can quickly get it done," he tells the New Sunday Times.

Azizan is pleased that the Pas-led state government has been consulted and its representative included in the tender process.

"People have the worst impression of us but we have no problems with the projects," says the MB, who was among the earliest to agree to the plans:

"I want to see Kedah well developed. I hope the plans will be carried out in a proper manner and soon. It seems to be taking a long time."

But the past year hasn't just been wait-and-see for the NCIA.

It has engaged potential investors on manufacturing, logistics and agriculture and is in the midst of finalising deals.

Since the Kulim High-Technology Park has been successful with semiconductor wafer fabrication, NCIA is looking into upgrading other parks to High Technology Park standards.

It is in the process of developing an action plan with MIMOS for the Sensor Grid pilot project to allow for real-time crop monitoring, analysis and preventive care solutions for the agriculture industry.

Roads in padi areas in the Mada region are slowly being upgraded and a Kedah Agro Industries Berhad-Sime Farms sweet corn commercial farming project has already seen a bountiful harvest.

A pilot digital resource centre is also taking shape in Sungai Petani.

But it's a far cry from the rather more impressive achievements of the Iskandar Region development. At least, analysts think so.

When NCER was launched, says one local bank analyst, Kedah had some industrial projects though the focus was very much on agriculture.

Analysts were more bullish on the Iskandar Development Region, followed by the East Coast Economic Region, because these were spearheaded by Khazanah Nasional and Petronas.

At that time, say analysts, NCER lacked a clear champion with Sime Darby likely to relinquish its role after the setting up of the NCIA.

"Many projects in Kedah have not taken off, especially those relating to infrastructure, which can be seen from the Mid-Term Review of the Ninth Malaysia Plan," the bank analyst says.

"And while the NCER initially talked about oil and gas infrastructure in Kedah, we haven't heard much lately about the Zon Industri Petroleum Yan, Zon Industri Petroleum Kota Perdana and the proposed trans-peninsular pipeline from Yan to Bachok," she adds.

News flow on the NCER has been weak recently, she says, and the northern corridor would be a 'hold' compared to other corridors.

And even with the success stories, there are niggling problems.

For instance, not all area farmer organisations (PPK) have the kind of capital it takes to run a padi estate like the one in Tajar, says Mada's Zainuddin.

Major work like widening roads and realigning canals is paid for by Mada, but PPKs must have enough to pay the RM4,000 per ha operational cost for the season.

They also need enough capital to pay farmers who are members of the estate for the harvested padi, in advance. That's because the PPK buys the harvest first and recoups the money when it sells the padi to the millers later.

"Most of the PPKs in Wilayah 3 of Mada, where the Tajar farmers are, face financial difficulties," explains Zainuddin.

Local farmers like Omar are also bothered by the fact that they get less per tonne of padi than farmers in Selangor and Perak. Here millers buy it at around RM900 per tonne. In the other two states, it ranges from RM1100 to RM1,280.

They'd like to see prices standardised nationwide.

Despite that problem, nothing in Tajar seems on hold.

Here, farmers like Omar who worked the fields with bent backs from age 18 now marvel at their massive machine-leveled plots, sophisticated irrigation and precise fertilisation schedules.

"Farmers were skeptical about planting in 40 ha plots," he admits. "They worried about giving over control of their fields to Mada experts. But now they see that it can be done."

Here, it's full steam ahead.

nsunt@nstp.com.my