Malaysia: Urban farms hold key to food security
As a leader in urban community prosperity and sustainability, the Housing and Local Government Development Ministry introduced the urban community farming policy in August 2021.
By Suzie Haryanti Husain
The Sun Daily
Jan 23, 2023
Excerpt:
To prevent future food crises, appropriate actions must be taken. Malaysians now realise the necessity of food production, evident with the fact that urban agricultural involvement has jumped from 18,687 in 2019 to 40,219 in 2020. City inhabitants started growing vegetables in pots in their yards, verandahs and rooftops out of necessity and boredom.
Urban farming can be sustainable and offer food security to communities and households. It has environmental, social and economic benefits. It can feed locals, reduce import dependence, create jobs and improve the environment.
Urban farming is promoted as a means to feed people healthy and fresh food in countries like Brazil, the US and Africa.
Before Covid-19, most of the Malaysian urban population had not joined a community garden before. However, urban farming has become more popular due to increasing stakeholder support.
When communal life and office work return to normal, will urban farming participation grow or be sustained? A social media study shows that several towns increased their community garden awareness and activities during and after the pandemic.
Before the pandemic, in an effort to get more people involved in urban farming, the government and a number of NGO
launched campaigns, organised programmes and provided subsidies but the lack of knowledge, area and space available limited these activities. However, post-pandemic, the government and NGO have been promoting and transferring knowledge to preserve and grow urban farming.
