KAJANG: The marigold plants outside his home are standing tall at over one metre, far surpassing their average height of 60cm.
Civil engineer Tan Hong Boon attributed this to his very own innovation of a low-cost system in which rainwater is stored underground as an oasis or water reservoir for plants to drink from.
“With my system, the plants get constant access to water and are able to naturally optimise their own growth,” he said.
In an interview, Tan said the idea to develop his “WaterSave Planting System” came about after he noticed how water was wasted using traditional watering methods.
“Traditional methods will wet the surface of the soil, which then attracts the roots of the plant to grow somewhat upwards as roots grow towards the source of nutrients or water.
“This results in less optimal growth as the roots will be left in dry, hard soil when the top soil layer dries naturally over the course of the day, affecting their ability to do photosynthesis and grow.”
With his method, Tan said that an even-level hole is dug to cover the area where crops are to be grown on top of it.
Then an impermeable membrane, which can be as simple as a plastic sheet, is placed to cover the entire bottom of the hole and the walls of the hole.
Finally, an even layer of sand is placed throughout the membrane before soil is then added back on and seeds or crops are planted on the soil.
“Rainwater that lands on the soil flows down until it reaches the membrane where it stays as a reservoir for weeks, thanks to the sand being unable to absorb the water.
“The plant’s roots then naturally head downwards until it reaches the sand layer, giving it constant access to a water source whenever it needs.”
“This makes it cheaper and easier to grow plants as you need not install pipes or sprinklers,” said Tan, 62. Neither is there a need to hire extra hands to water the plants everyday.
This proposed method reduces or even cuts out the need for additional watering altogether.
Tan, who is a former president of the Natural Farming Association Malaysia, said the system also makes the plants grow faster and produce better yields than traditional farming methods.
He explained that his idea for the system began in 2019 when he used a terrarium box to grow plants. By 2022, he developed it into the WaterSave Planting System, which he used in his farm in Kajang.
Seeing his plants growing well without being watered gave him the assurance that he was on the right track.
This prompted him to apply for a grant from the All-Party Parliamentary Group Malaysia - Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) last year.
Using this grant, Tan introduced his system to an Orang Asli community in Semenyih where he taught them how to use it to grow long beans to earn a living.
“The depth and size of the hole depends on the plant. Different species need different levels of water, so it required some engineering and agricultural input.
“But once it was set up and I trained the farmers, they could easily maintain their farm.
“They didn’t even need to water the land for months. The long beans not only grew faster but much bigger and of higher quality,” he said.
Tan’s system caught the eye of his fellow engineering graduate Keith Kee from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.
Kee helped Tan to submit an application for an international green technology competition named the Greentech Pitch Day, which is run by the international environmental, social and governance (ESG) consulting firm CorpStage.
On March 29, Tan’s WaterSave Planting System won the competition, edging out thousands of other ESG-related proposals from across the world.
Tan has also implemented his system in other projects such as in building a farm for the Gurdwara Sahib Machap Babe Ke in Johor last month.
And thanks to Kee’s connections, Tan’s system is being explored for use in floral landscaping at properties in Singapore by a real estate company.
“I am also looking at more local community awareness programmes so I can educate home gardeners on how to implement it. I believe this can be a big game changer in the agricultural industry,” Tan added.
