Tag: vegetables

Looming food scarcity

Tan Tean Chee says food security for the people is important
By Foong Pek Yee
The supply of some 60,000 kilogram vegetables from Chemor daily risks disruption when the farmland is taken over for development, says Chemor Modern Farmers Association.
Its chairman Tan Tean Chee says Chemor in Perak is one of the major suppliers of vegetables daily, producing some 60,000 kilogram of a variety of greens like spinach, kangkung, choy sam, brinjals, chillies, turnips, spring onions and maize.
These are sold to wholesale markets in Ipoh, Penang, Kedah, Kelantan and Selayang.
“Climatic change is already threatening food supply worldwide, ” notes Tan, adding that any other disruption like shrinking farmland should be avoided.
On that note, he expresses his concern as some of the farmers toiling on about 1,200 acres of farmland in Chemor had received eviction notice last December.
About half of the 293 members in the association were affected, he adds.
Tan, 60, who is a third generation farmer in his family says the soil and environment in Chemor is conducive for vegetable farming.
According to the elderly villagers, vegetable farming in the area is dated back to the 1920s.
Tan says vegetable farming is labour intensive, crediting the farmers in Chemor for their hard work and resilience in ensuring steady supply to the market.
He says all is well until 2005 when some of the farmers who do not have legal documents to use the land had to evict to make way for development.
Two years later, in 2007, the association was set up to help the farmers.
Tan says the farmers want to pay to lease the land so that they can continue to farm and contribute to the food supply in the country.
Meanwhile Dr Jeyakumar Devaraj who has been helping the farmers says the authorities concerned should look at farming as food security for the people in the long term.
He points out that climatic change and  food scarcity which  is already happening worldwide is set to escalate, and this is something that needs the authorities’ urgent attention.
Dr Jeyakumar suggests the existing farmland in Chemor  be preserved instead of making way for mega projects.
While mega projects are important for the economy, the  Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) chairman says the farmers who have been working hard for a living and contributing to the food supply for the people is also doing something important for the country.

A wish for his golden years

Liew Wong does not want to burden his children.

By Foong Pek Yee

foongpekyee@gmail.com

AT 56, Liew Wong is four years from the official retirement age.
He is relieved that his two children, in their late 20s, are working and independent.
Having toiled as a farmer for the last 30 years to raise his family, Liew says his wish from now on is to be able to take care of his wife and himself in their golden years.
“I do not want to depend on my children for a living,” says Liew as he gobbled up his lunch when met at Kanthan Baru New Village in Chemor, Perak recently.
His weather beaten face tells the story of a hard life.
He is the third generation of farmers in his family from the village.
Farming is a 365 days job from sunrise to sunset, he says.
As a small scale farmer, you are the boss and you and your family are the workers, says Liew, recalling he started to help his father in the farm when he was 10 years old.
It is all about working hard to survive day to day.
Today, his 86-year-old father continues to work in their farm, measuring about two acres where they planted the umbra fruit  (sar lei in Cantonese) and oil palm.
Make way: The entrance to Liew Wong’s farm. He got a notice to
 evict the land.
Farming and village life has its upside though.
They enjoy a peaceful and simple life in a close knitted community from generation to generation since the 1920s.
All is well until 2005 when land issues started to surface.
For many farmers, they toil on land without legal documents since their forefathers set foot in Chemor a century ago.
Since 17 years ago, development saw some farmers having to surrender their farmland when the area is earmarked for the purpose.
Nevermind that Chemor is known for vegetable farming, producing some 60,000 kilogram vegetables daily.
According to the farmers, the terrain and soil in Chemor are conducive for many types of vegetables –  from spinach, choy sam, brinjals, bitter gourds, chillies to maize.
“All along we are willing to pay to the landowners to lease the land, ” says Liew
According to him,  then Tambun Member of Parliament Datuk Seri Ahmad Husni Hanadzlah had in 2012  helped farmers to resolve the land issues.
However Liew says the signing of a  deal on land lease for  farmers was aborted at the last minute.
In December last year, Liew says he is among farmers in Chemor who received eviction notice.
“I don’t know where to get a job to survive if I lost my farm.
“Even young people find it hard to get jobs these days,”he says.

A struggle to keep family tradition

Destiny: Ah Thim and his world
By Foong Pek Yee
IT is a scorching hot afternoon.
But it is also any other day for Ah Thim.
From afar, he cuts a lonely figure in the vegetable farm.
At 54,  he has been a farmer since a teenager; with his life revolving  around his family, farm and Kanthan Baru New Village in Chemor, Perak,  where they stay.
As fate has it, Ah Thim was inducted into farming after his eldest brother’s death.
Recalling the tragedy losing his 20-year-old brother, Ah Thim who is second among four sons became the de facto head of his family – by Chinese tradition- in a then conservative society.
He has another five sisters.
As the de facto head,  Ah Thim was expected, if not duty bound,  to become a farmer, taking after his father and grandfather who were farmers and keeping the family together.
He became head of the family after his father passed away.
Fast track to the present, Ah Thim, as head of the family, stays with his 80-year-old plus mother and a younger sister who is single in their ancestral home.
He says the sister and a younger brother helps out in the farm.
Toiling on about an acre of land, planting turnips and spring onions, Ah Thim says that is their source of income.
He spends most of his waking hours in the farm.
“I am here by sunrise and work till late evening. In between I go home for lunch,” he says.
Vegetable farming can be  a back breaking job but Ah Thim is not complaining.
“I will continue to do my best. I am used to this way of life.”
Quiet and peaceful: A man fishing at a lake nearby  Ah Thim’s farm.
According to some elderly villagers, farming was their lifeline since their forefathers set foot in Chemor in the 1920s .
The lack of formal education, exposure and job opportunities saw many villagers continue to depend on  farming for a living despite all odds stacked against them these days.
Topping their list of woes is  land issues which surfaced about 17 years ago.
Farmers who have no legal documents on their farmland would have to make way once the land is earmarked for development.
In the case of Ah Thim, he is now left with about an acre of farmland only.
While he is worried over losing his last acre to development, he says he has to depend on the Persatuan Petani  Moden Chemor (Chemor Modern Farmers Association) for help on land issues.
“The matter is too complicated for me to understand,” he adds.
Amidst all the uncertainties, he is visibly happy when he spoke on his only  child- a son-  who is working in Singapore.
No matter what,  Ah Thim says he is always grateful waking up to a new day. .

Farmers caught in the crossfire

A tough life clouded by uncertainties.
By Foong Pek Yee
foongpekyee@gmail.com
April 13, 2022.
UKRAINE may be an 11-hour-flight away but the war there is giving farmers in Malaysia sleepless nights.
With Russia and Ukraine being major exporters of fertilisers worldwide,  the price of the commodity has skyrocket since the war erupted in late February.
“A 50 kilogram bag of fertiliser cost RM210 now, compared to RM135 in January this year,” says a vegetable and fruit farmer in Bidor, Perak.
He says the war has dealt  another blow on the farmers who have yet to recover from the covid 19 pandemic.
 The road ahead: A farm in Bidor  Stesyen New Village in Bidor, Perak 
The villagers settled down in the new village during the Emergency (1948-1960).
“We have already scaled down production in the last two years.
“The pandemic which saw a shortage of workers, rise in the cost of farming and uncertainty in demand for vegetables and fruits and loss of income have taken a toll on the farming community,” the farmer who is in his 30s says.
He reckons that farmers will have to scale down their production further if the current situation does not improve.
Perseverance: A farmer harvesting sweet potatoes in his farm in Bidor Stesyen New Village.
According to CNBC.com on April 6, the war in Ukraine could tighten food supplies.
It noted that farmers are seeing prices for fertilisers skyrocket, and that some of them may opt to rotate their crops or use less nutrients, which could reduce crop yields.
A vegetable farmer in Bidor who is in his 20s says he has also reduced his production by half since two years ago.
He cited high cost of farming  and uncertainty in demand for green produce as major reasons to do so.
“I can no longer afford to go for full production based on current circumstances,” he adds.
For a living: A farmer having his lunch at a coffeeshop in Bidor Stesyen New Village.  The place is quiet due to the pandemic.
Green produce:  Bidor Stesyen New Village produces a variety of vegetables like lady’s fingers, sweet potatoes, sengkuang (turnip), radish;  and fruits include guava and jambu.
Old world charm: Bidor town is a touristic spot ,selling fruits from surrounding new villages like Bidor Stesyen, Kuala Bikam and Coldstream which are famous for fruits like guava, jambu and mangoes.
He says the rising cost of living, rising cost of doing business and unemployment will affect consumption patterns.
“People have to cut consumption.
“This will have adverse effects on farmers.
“Our income has already fallen by half compared to pre pandemic days,” he says, adding that cash flow problems is looming.