Growing an interest in farming from young

Hasmiza with a stingless bee (lebah kelulut) hive where the school harvests its honey. — THOMAS YONG/The Star

THE agricultural industry plays a crucial role in ensuring a country’s people will have sufficient food supply in the future.

To prepare for the needed manpower, the country’s younger generation must be exposed to the basic skills of farming.

SK Taman Suria Sustainability Unit coordinator Hasmiza Sabtu said the school had taken a leap by introducing community farming to pupils from Year 4 to Year 6.

“The school participated in the Iskandar Malaysia Ecolife Challenge (IMELC), organised by Iskandar Regional Development Authority (IRDA) in 2016.

“To take part, the school must practise a low-carbon lifestyle, such as conducting recycling activities and gardening.

“We also introduced corridor hydroponic farming to pupils so that they can be part of the planting and harvesting process,” she said.

Norlina says there are 21 local communities in Pasir Gudang Community Farm.

Hasmiza added that all of the produce would be sold to the teachers or given away to pupils.

“We wanted them to bring home the skills that they have learned and put them to practice; it is important for them to have the awareness that they can grow their own plants at home and make money from selling any excess produce.

“This initiative is also in line with the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) of zero hunger,” she added.

Meanwhile, SK Taman Suria Environmental Club coordinator Hafizul Syarafi Mohd Noor said the school received 60 nutripots from Johor Biotechnology and Biodiversity Corp (J-Biotech) as part of a “Farm to School” initiative.

“The school has also introduced a ‘Wakaf Botani’ programme as part of the initiative to get pupils interested in gardening.

Hafizul says the school gets pupils interested in gardening through an initiative.

“The programme started in January last year, where the pupils were taught how to grow vegetables at home and appreciate the labour that goes into growing each plant,” he said.

Pasir Gudang Community Farm coordinator Norlina Muhammad said Pasir Gudang City Council (MBPG) started the community farming initiative in 2014 to convert pocket land into something useful for the community.

“The initiative is in line with the National Agrofood Policy, and the council started with four locations in Taman Air Biru and Taman Cendana.

“Today, we have 21 local communities involving 120 people who have formed the Pasir Gudang Community Farm, where they help each other out in terms of conducting research and development, sales as well as knowledge transfer,” she said.

The community has also worked together with the Malaysian Pepper Board, Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) and Tanjung Langsat Port in an effort to share and enhance their knowledge on urban farming.

“The community has reached a mature stage where they are able to self-sustain without any intervention from the government and able to sell produce not only to nearby residents but supermarkets as well,” she added.

Norlina explained that each farm had land sizes of between 0.04 and 0.8ha, with a total land area of 3.42ha and a total sale value of RM15,000 per harvesting cycle.

Pasir Gudang Community Farm was aiming to become the number one farming community in the country after receiving the Malaysia Landscape Architecture Awards (Honour Award) back in May this year, she added.