Photos

Irrigation Canal-
Muda Agricultural Development Authority (M.A.D.A) is responsible for the irrigation scheme in Northern part of Malaysia for padi planting. Muda is a dam up north in Kedah.

During the early stage of implementation, the Muda Irrigation Scheme was very much an engineering project per se. The general idea at that time was that development based on agriculture will ignite by itself if basic facilities were provided by the government. No detailed planning was made to harmonize in detail the roles which had to be played by several departments, e.g. the Drainage and Irrigation Department and also the Department of Agriculture.

In mid 1967, after construction work had begun for one and a half years, there was a sudden awareness that the initial planning was incomplete. As a result, an office of the Project Coordinator was set up under the Ministry of Agriculture in August 1967 and administered the project implementation from Kuala Lumpur. Because of the distance, the Project Coordinator could not administered the project effectively. The Project Coordinator’s office was moved to Alor Star in 1969. Even then, development programmes could not be planned and implemented perfectly because the executive power within the Project Coordinator was limited owing to the differences in authority existing between several state and federal departments. In the meantime, both the Kedah and Perlis state governments faced difficulties in the in the large expenditure outlay required for the operations and project development.

Thus the Federal Government took the decision to set up a statutory body to replace the Office of the Project Coordinator. On 30 June 1970, the Muda Agricultural Development Authority was born under an emergency decree with the initial Bahasa Malaysia name “Pihak Berkuasa Kemajuan Pertanian Muda”. Its inauguration was officiated by the late Tun Hj. Abdul Razak Hussein who was the acting Prime Minister of Malaysia as well as the acting Director of Operations in a ceremony at the Balai Besar Building in Alor Star, Kedah Darul Aman.

The formation of MADA was approved by Parliament under Act No. 70, the Muda Agricultural Development Authority Act, 1972. Under this Act, the duties of MADA were outlined as follows :-

(i) To improve, encourage, assist and manage economic development projects in the Muda area, and
(ii) To plan and manage within the Muda area all agricultural development as assigned to it by the State Governments of Kedah and Perlis.