Malaysia: Entrepreneur Feature: The Urban Farmer
So far, he’s trained almost 500 people.
The Graduan
Aug 30, 2020
Excerpt:
He never thought of starting a business but Balan began getting requests to give private lessons on how to start a home farm. He thought, “Why not conduct a public programme?” And so Balan began offering home-farming training sessions, coining it Fifteen Minutes Farmer (FMF) where Balan teaches others how to grow organic vegetables with limited space and time. “FMF is all about teaching you the right techniques and how to farm like a pro, based on all the challenges and failures I faced when I started, power packed into a three-hour fun-learning,” shares Balan. So far, he’s trained almost 500 people. “I’m happy to say that most of them are happily growing their organic vegetables,” shares Balan.
But to get to where he is, Balan had to conduct many experiments and encounter many moments of failure to eventually find success in his farming. While there are uncountable sites and information about farming and gardening on the internet, they’re not all applicable to our environment. Balan had to keep creating new and innovative techniques for every process and improvising on them. He says, as someone who comes from a process-oriented background, “I believe that with the correct process and techniques, vegetables can be easily grown within limited space and time.”
