Malaysia is resorting to cloud seeding to bring much-needed rain to the country’s “rice bowl” north, where a drought has delayed planting of the staple crop and raised supply fears.

“This year ... has been affected by prolonged dry weather, low rainfall and reduced dam water levels,” said Malaysia’s Minister of Agriculture and Food Security Mohamad Sabu.

The conditions mean farmers have missed two of the three usual planting phases for so-called “wet direct seeding” of rice, a technique that requires fields to be flooded. Dry direct seeding is an alternative, and deadlines for that extend until June.

But farmers argue the technique provides lower yields, and that scattered recent rainfall has rendered it impossible in some fields anyway.

While more than 50 per cent of the region’s rice fields have been prepared, just a fraction have been planted as farmers await the rain.