Agricultural development of waqf lands for ummah empowerment in Perlis

The development of waqf land in Malaysia provides many benefits and positive impacts to the community. The waqf land available in each state can be developed in various sectors such as the religious, education, health, agricultural, and economic sectors to empower ummah and the national economy. The agricultural sector is one of the sectors that have the potential to be developed using waqf land because it has the potential to help the community especially the asnaf group from an economic point of view such as providing jobs, increasing income, and guaranteeing food security. However, even though there is a lot of waqf land, there are still 16 lots of waqf land in Perlis that have not yet been developed because sometimes this waqf land cannot be developed due to several issues and challenges that prevent the development of waqf land. Among the problems that arise that cause waqf land not to be developed are the location of waqf land that is not strategic for development, lack of funds, lack of expertise among the staff of the Islamic Religious Council, lack of community understanding about waqf and also the issue of waqf land that is not registered under the Perlis Council of Islamic Religion and Malay Customs (MAIPs). Thus, this study aims to investigate the status of waqf land in Perlis, identify issues and challenges in developing waqf land in Perlis, and study the potential development of waqf land for the agricultural sector in Perlis. This study uses qualitative methods for data collection to achieve its goals. This study uses document content analysis methods and in-depth interviews conducted with officials at MAIPs, officials at the Perlis State Department of Agriculture, and people with expertise in waqf. Findings show that there are still waqf lands in Perlis that have not been developed because there are various issues and challenges to develop them. The issues and challenges that arise are due to the location of waqf land unsuitable for development projects, lack of funds, and the problem of waqf land not being registered under MAIPs. In addition, the study found that the undeveloped waqf land in Perlis has the potential to be developed for the agricultural sector because it is seen as having the potential to empower and help the community in addition to being able to guarantee food security. The implications of the findings suggest that the MAIPs need to collaborate with the Perlis State Department of Agriculture to succeed in the waqf land development project as an agricultural sector so before this project is carried out it is necessary to choose suitable crops to be planted on the waqf land to produce good crops that can be marketed. There are several ways to market agricultural products, including selling directly to consumers, selling to wholesalers, or marketing to supermarkets. In addition, can get marketing assistance from the Malaysian Federal Marketing Authority (FAMA).