The authority’s chairman, Muhammad Husin, said there is an urgency to save the rice crop which still has a chance to be harvested.

He said this year’s drought is the worst in history since the agency was established more than 50 years ago.

“The existing Kemubu pump is currently dry and can no longer supply water to Kada padi fields, and most of the crops cannot be saved, especially in the northern and southern parts of Kota Bharu which have no other source of water.

“Given the situation, we will speed up the cloud seeding operation next week in the affected areas and areas where there is no source of water even though we previously planned to do it at the end of April,” he said.

“We will carry out cloud seeding operations for rice that has been planted for almost 60 days because it is not possible to save newly planted padi,” he said.

Muhammad said about 34% of the 26,833 hectares of rice crops under Kada are expected to be affected due to the current drought, including 9,180 hectares in the north and south of Kota Bharu.

The situation, he said, will affect the amount of rice production for the second planting season of 2023 which is expected to shrink by up to 25% if the current temperature holds between 30 and 34 degrees Celsius. The first season’s harvest yielded 212,000 tonnes, he said.