Ecology of Traditional Padi Fanning in West Malaysia

Abstract West Malaysia is divided into seven padi regions: (I) the Ke1antan-Trengganu marginal hills, (2) the upper and middle Perak region, (3) the Kelantan-Trengganu alluvial plain, (4) the Kedah marginal plain, (5) the west coastal plain, (6) the Melaka-Negrisembilan-Kuala Lipis zone, and (7) the middle and lower Pahang region. The Kelantan-Trengganu marginal hills (I) and the upper and middle Perak region (2) have, besides wet padi, upland padi including that grown by shifting cultivation. The Kelantan~Trengganualluvial plain (3) is a large wet-padi region, while in the Kedah marginal plain (4) padi is grown only in small mountain valleys. In these two regions the plough is very widely used. The traditional farming of the west coastal plain (5) is characteriz"ed by the use of the tajak, or heavy metal blade for land preparation, and d.ouble " "transplanting. The Melaka-Negrisembilan-Kuala Lipis zone (6) is a southern extension of the Kedah marginal plain, made up of a series of small mountain valleys. In this region the changkul, or hoe, is more widely used than the plough. In the middle and lower Pahang region (7), padi fields occupy the small branch-stream valleys of the Pahang river, forming scattered small clusters. The main tools for land preparation are the tajak and the parang, vestiges of the earlier shifting cultivation. The plough is used in the Kelantan-Trengganu alluvial plain (3) and the Kedah marginal plain (4) since soil conditions are suited to plough operation in these fluvial plains. The rest of West Malaysia is dominated by swamp, and here the tajak is most suitable for preparing the land for transplanting, since the soil in the swampy lowland is too loose and full of woody debris for plough operation. In a wider geographical frame, the plough is said to have been introduced from continental Southeast Asia via the series of fluvial plains along the eastern coast of the Malay peninsula southward to the Kelantan-Trengganu plain; the tajak has been extending from the perhumid part of insular Southeast Asia along the swampy western coast of the peninsula northward to the mouth of the Ganges. Genealogically, padi farming with the plough can be regarded as the traditional wet-padi farming originated in the continental part of Asia, whereas padi farming with the tajak is affinitive to shifting cultivation, although today it is true wet-padi farming