Waste not, want not.

That is my description of unworked land in Lipat Kajang. The kampong has a vast reserve of unworked land, or shall I rephrase it as unproductive land or shall I say land with ‘absentee’ land lords.

Once upon a time, Lipat Kajang was not too heavily populated and so land was owned by a few people who originally opened and pioneered the land. In those days under the British it was quite easy to get named title of land. You clear the virgin jungle or the secondary jungle, you work the land, you plant fruit trees on the land or for that matter you make the land productive, you can claim title to the land. And therefore there were people who owned vast acres of land in the kampong. My great grandfather was one of them. It was easy for him, he had a large family, he must have got so many wives and they all work the land and he must have laid claims to all of them (I have no proof but I am just assuming). But when he passed away, the land was inherited by his children and wives and so these were divided accordingly, either by the law of the land or by mutual agreement. By the time it reaches my generation we inherited only small pieces of land here and there. Thus, much of the land are unproductive to work on. The market value of the pieces of land is minimal as the land are very much in the rural settings. Only town lands have any measure of value. As a result many have left the land they inherited to be unproductive, and have moved somewhere else.

I shall qualify the statement and the meaning of unproductive. It basically means (in my mind) that the land does not give substantial periodic returns. You pay the Government an annual rental, which is dirt cheap, and even with so cheap you cannot generate income from the land. Unless the land is full of rubber trees (and later palm oil trees). Many of these land have fruit trees, may even be called as orchards but Malaysian fruits are not very marketable because they are seasonal and all fruit trees fruit during a season thus depressing the market values of the fruit because of high supply with constant or minimal demand. And much of the fruit not marketed are left to rot because there is no systematic marketing available presently.

So unworked land are not really unworked but unproductive land.

How can we make the land productive?. I saw an instance where a Chinese guy contracted a 7 acres of land from various owners where he planted papayas, chilli and water melon, at various time on the land. He managed to market them all because the Chinese has got good marketing technique and contacts. The kampong folks have no such technique or contact, they are not brought up to technically market products. Imagine if one can get more than 7 acres of land ‘contracted’ and one can almost create a proper plantation. With good return I am in the opinion that land owners will go the way of combined effort of land development. But the method have been said (and many times mentioned) but never tried. In Lipat Kajang its too far from it being brought to reality because no one has to date really try to go along that way (except for the Chinaman I mentioned above).

The soil in Lipat Kajang is very fertile, and with a bit of fertilizing anything can be planted. Currently many of these pieces of land are either planted with coconut trees or traditional fruit trees or even unplanted at all (just wasted land). With enough persuasion from the kampong leaders there is a high probability that all these pieces of land can be combined and a big productive piece, some sort of plantation groupings can be formed.

Many pieces of land in Lipat Kajang are not really dry productive land but swampy areas which are really padi fields or “sawah” or “paya”. In the olden days these were properly irrigated and people used to plant padi. It was more or less an annual affair and they used to plant perennial padi plants. But many people in other parts of Malaysia are now planting padi every 6 months. Thus these people who plant padi every 6 month have higher productivity. I suppose if the kampong folks can organise to plant padi every 6 moths then maybe they can get a good return from their “sawah” or “paya”. But the challenge is that the kampong is now dwindling in population and the younger folks have no training in padi planting. They just do not know how to plant padi, and they do not even try. So the idea of the present kampong folks planting padi is out of the question. Howeve there are people who are willing to work the padi fields but from what I hear they are offering very cheap rental. Thus the kampong folks are not interested to respond to the idea. But of course these rental of padi fields from the outsiders will need a good irrigation scheme. Will the kampong be able to provide for that?

The vast land unworked, dry or wet have good potential for rearing animals. Duck rearing are suitable for the wet areas, and chicken for the dry areas. If combined, the dry areas can also be used as breeding grounds for buffaloes, cattle, and goats/sheep. Some people have tried that on a small scale and seems successful enough, though the return is small, which may not be really worth the effort. If these are done on a bigger scale there is a high probability that the return is adequate for a comfortable living in the kampong.

The Govt. on their part has tried to get the people to do the ‘combined’ efforts that I have mentioned. But to date the Government are just saying it with no concrete plan on how this will work in real life.

Must all these making of unworked land productive be left to the Government of the day.? Why can’t the kampong folks have a start and work out the pros and cons after weighing all the risks involved and how to overcome such risks. Its just that there is no initiative in any direction or from anyone.


Lipat Kajang people (or decendents) are encouraged to participate& contribute (Orang Lipat Kajang, atau keturunan, di jemput memberi sumbangan idea)