Malaysia: Local urban farms hold key to food security
Their small garden, covering 900 sq metres, produces a monthly harvest of 40kg to 50kg of three varieties of vegetables.
By Ainaa Aiman
Free Malaysia Today
November 19, 2021
Excerpt:
“There is a lot of space in the Klang Valley to start farming, but people are not inspired to make a change. People are not being given the proper credit, proper remuneration, knowledge or training to stay through and persevere to establish (farming) in an urban space,” he said.
However, the pandemic has shown that it is crucial for the government to start thinking about bringing food closer to the community.
“We need 1,000 one-acre farms, not one 1,000-acre farm. If we start to have 1,000 one-acre farms, we will address a large proportion of the food security problems,” Irfan said.
“Each farm will then train other people who will then create other farms. We will no longer be worrying about importing food and we can even become a net exporter of food.”
A big challenge remains – the common assumption that urban farms require a lot of labour.
