Evaluation on Irrigation System of Paddy Field for Rice Production in Tropical Climate: Case Study at FELCRA SEBERANG PERAK

Rice is a staple food of more than 50% of the world’s population including Malaysia and Malaysia has to produce thousands of tons of rice every year to fulfill demand of 29.34 million people. Irrigation is known as one of the major contributor to the rice production. The objective of this paper is to investigate the site condition in terms of irrigation system, amount of rainfall, availability of water and the geography of the site. In this study, the availability of water in can be obtained by measuring the velocity and the flow supply level of water on the field while rainfall data can be obtained from Department of Irrigation and Drainage (DID). This study could provide an analysis on the irrigation system used in paddy field at FELCRA Seberang Perak as well as the availability of water to be supplied to the paddy field area. The results of this study prove that there is a shortage of water discharge at the site area. At Point 3 and 4, the water discharge for each secondary canal should be 0.098m3/s and 0.35m3/s respectively. However, the water discharge obtained from the fieldwork is only 0.028m3/s at Point 3 while 0.015m3/s recorded at Point 4. This shows a great differences between the actual water discharge (on field) and theoretical water discharge (calculation). The intensity of rainfall on the other hand should also be considered as it relates to the amount of water to be discharged to the paddy field area. At the end of this study, there are some recommendation and possible approach that can be done to solve the problem of water scarcity at this paddy field area which are renewing the old canal besides investigating on the ground elevation in order to determine the gradient of the site. Apart from these, trying to get new water source is one of the proposed solution but further investigation need to be done in order to determine its potential to be supplied to the paddy field area. The result of this study may be useful for related parties in order to improve and fix the problems related to the insufficient water for the paddy field.