Malaysia: Penang launches first self-sustaining urban farm, aims for 100 hubs by 2023
“A sustainable urban farming movement can enable communities to grow food independently, and potentially provide opportunities for employment, entrepreneurship and social cohesion,” he said.
By Opalyn Mok
Malay Mail
Sept 14, 2020
Excerpt:
Penang today launched its first self-sustaining community urban farm that can potentially feed up to 400 households each harvest.
Penang Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow said the initiative was implemented in collaboration with the Chief Minister Incorporated (CMI), Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris (UPSI) and Think City.
“We hope to set up 100 community farm hubs, based on the urban farming concept, in the state, preferably by 2023 as the time frame of reaching this in 2030 is too long,” he said in his speech at the launch of the farm at the Penang Digital Library here.
He said the community urban farming concept started out with the success of the Malaysia First Vanilla Smart Farm that was officiated at the Permatang Pauh Agropark last month.
“Community farming has a bright prospect to be further developed and even at my residence, there is a pilot project of an urban farm covering about 200 sq ft,” he said.
He said the community urban farm at the Penang Digital Library (PDL1), on about 2,000 sq ft of land, is a strategic location as the digital library is a knowledge hub that are often visited by people of all ages.
“Think City is fully funding this project while UPSI will be providing their expertise in developing the farm including developing an agricultural system using the Internet of Things,” he said.
He said the state agricultural department provided the seedlings for the community farm and the project included the use of vertical aquaponic and economical food waste composters.
