SEPANG: Just back from the brink of losing almost RM100,000 to floods at the end of last October, a recovered nursery operator was once again wiped out when the recent floods submerged his entire business site with a loss of more than RM200,000.

"Last October, there were floods because of the rain, but all the flowers were still OK. Now everything is damaged because the trees were submerged for six days, the floods did not subside as quickly," he said.

He tried to move the saplings but was foiled by water rising too fast.

Among the plants affected were bonsai, anthurium and Cycas ornamental trees which cost hundreds of ringgit as well as flowerpots and other agricultural inputs.

According to Lim, he plans to find a new area to restart his business but the existing site (which was flooded) will be redeveloped only on a small scale to avoid the impact of larger losses.

The nursery site is one of three lots of land under the jurisdiction of the Labu Lanjut Agricultural Centre, which is located near the centre serving as a training location for crop courses such as fertigation techniques (combining fertilisation and irrigation to deliver nutrients by drips to the root zone), fertilisation, mushroom culture, in addition to storing fertilisers and the like.

Sepang District Agriculture Officer Mohd Fadzli Mohamad Yaacob said the nursery operator along with two other vegetable garden operators were participants in agricultural projects under the Agriculture Department where they rented land owned by the department at an annual rental rate.

He said the area was often hit by floods as it is located near Sungai Labu and every participant in the project was also duly informed of the flood risk in advance.

"They (participants) know the risk, even before this flood but not as bad as this time. All crops such as eggplant and chillies as well as other nurseries were also destroyed with a total loss estimated at hundreds of ringgit," he said, adding that they would receive flood relief assistance from the Department of Agriculture.

According to him, the agricultural centre premises were also affected by chest-high water, besides damage of equipment for courses and furniture with a total write-off of RM30,000.

"Thankfully, the fertiliser store was almost empty because the stock was distributed to farmers in early December. If not, our losses would be huge," he explained.

The flood disaster on Dec 18 also damaged the staff quarters of the Labu Lanjut Agricultural Centre located next to the centre.

Apart from the Labu Lanjut Centre, he said the Dengkil Agricultural Centre, which offers food-based agro-based industry courses, was also hit but they managed to move the equipment there to higher ground.

-- BERNAMA