THIS Leader is about padi farming, and all things attached to it. The good. The bad. And everything in between. And a good place to start is with the lament of a padi farmer, with much help from our national laureate, the late Shahnon Ahmad who weaves this wonderfully in his 1966 novel Ranjau Sepanjang Jalan:
“Stop the big floods that overflow my padi, Stop the long droughts that cake up my fields, Keep away the disasters that hinder us. Keep away the little white crabs that waste away our seedlings, Keep away the storms and typhoons.” Yes, padi farming in Kedah (and elsewhere too) is a story of thorns and harvests.
