Studies on land use of paddy field area under MADA administration in Perlis / Fatin Shahirah Mohd Safiee

Competition between the uses of agricultural land to occupy the needs of physical development have increasingly becoming popular in developed countries. In fact, the world has generally accepted this phenomenon as an inevitable trend because in whatever situation the development of the area will continue and take place. This can also directly affect the land administration system for paddy land where the inaccuracy of agricultural land registration information is under the agriculture agency involved in Malaysia which is Muda Agricultural Development Authority (MADA) and subsequently resulting in losses in the distribution of subsidies and fertilizers. In Malaysia, the change in the pattern of agricultural land use has also gained its place in modernization and local development, especially when it comes to rice cultivation. In Perlis for average, almost 5000 hectares of paddy fields have been changed from agricultural land use to other uses from 2000 to 2010. From the figures, it in critical situation and if that paddy fields is not protected, it will eventually disappear from on topographic map of the country. Therefore, this study is conducted to classify, analyse and produce the demography data of paddy field area in Perlis. Through this research also, the classification of land use of paddy field area will be made to see the changes in land use patterns and land area of paddy fields. In fact, some factors that contribute to the phenomenon of change are identified. And then from that, it make an analysis on land status base on land conditions that state in Land Title Certified with current land use to see the accuracy of registration for land administrative. The data for this study was obtained through the MADA, Remote Sensing Agency, land office, Department of Survey and Mapping Malaysia (JUPEM) and also through interviews with related agencies and farmers. Then, data is analysed through qualitative methods using the latest technology, which is Geographical Information System. For overall of this study found that paddy fields were affected by anthropogenic activity such as urban development and overhaul from year to year and for land administration, registration information for land use was still follow the conditions and parallel to its true status. So, it hoped that with the identification of the factors of land use patterns change and some of the proposed land protection ways in this study will help the authorities to realize more sustainable land management for advantages in future.