ISMAIL retired from government service early this year. He has plenty of experience as a computer technician. Friends and colleagues predicted that he would open a small computer shop after retirement, given his expertise in that field.
But no! Ismail went into agriculture instead! That had always been his favourite field, ever since he found out that he could make good money selling all sorts of agricultural products. In his spare time, with the help of the kampung boys, Ismail would sell pucuk paku, pucuk ubi, petai, jering and bananas.
During the fruit season, Ismail would use his pick-up truck to sell rambutans, durians and mangosteen from his small orchard.
I caught up with him last week. The fruit season is still a few months away, giving him more time to do other things on his orchard.
He managed to convince his in-laws to allow him to work on their idle land, with a written friendly agreement that he would put the land to good use and that they would share the spoils.
Ismail said it wasn’t easy to convince them. They are kampung folks and are happy with a few durian trees, rambutans, jackfruit and mangosteen. They have other lands, which are left idle; reason given is insufficient funds to develop them. They are also ageing and their children live in the cities and are not interested in developing the land.
So enters Ismail. With his savings and pension money, Ismail gathered a few kampung boys and paid them to clear the bushes and prepare the land for planting hybrid coconut trees and musang king durians.
Over teh O and mee bandung, Ismail said: “It’s not easy to convince the villagers. Fortunately, I have some money. I had to offer them a bit of money to convince them I’m confident of making profit from this venture.”
That about sums up the attitude of many kampung folks. They have land; they have some fruit trees; their children are all staying in towns and cities; they are ageing and they have no energy to work on the land. They eat and sell whatever fruits they get, using the “pajak” system.
This system is simple and has been used for decades. The land owner leases the fruit trees to an interested party during the fruit season. The leasing fee depends on acreage and how bountiful the fruits appear to be — a bit like futures trading. The land owner surrenders all fruits to the lessee until the season is over. The process is repeated the following year.
Ismail said he has done this before. But this time around, he’s doing it differently. With time on his side, and some capital to develop the land, Ismail is taking his adventure to the next level. He’s going into integrated farming — rear fish, rear chicken for their eggs, plant some vegetables and maybe look for some goats as well.
I recall Technology Park had put up a model integrated farm at an exhibition some years ago. It’s a very straightforward venture. The fish is fed with pellets and chicken droppings; water from the ponds is used to grow the vegetables; eggs are collected and sold directly to the markets. Yes, the chicken coops are all located above the fish ponds, hence making the cycle complete and easy to manage.
Individuals like Ismail are creative and business minded. They look for opportunities. Whether he succeeds or not, I’m not sure, but he sure is bent on giving it his best shot.
My question then is: where is the Agriculture and Agro-Based Ministry in all this? Ismail is not waiting for the government to start his ventures. He’s doing it on his own. Ismail never said anything about national food security; nothing about the national agriculture policy; nothing about the fact that our national food import bills run into billions!
All he’s interested in is to make full use of the idle land. He knows he can make money out of it. Since he’s a retired civil servant, he knows that his livelihood now depends on how he uses his time productively.
I’ve seen how Agriculture and Agro-Based Minister Datuk Salahuddin Ayub goes around meeting people, visiting sites and seeing up close some agriculture initiatives. The minister is making an effort to get to know the sector closely so that he can make informed decisions on the way forward.
Let’s all help him. In the end, we are all helping ourselves to make optimum use of the resources at our disposal. There’s plenty of money in agriculture, not to mention that we will be doing our small part to help reduce the billions in our imported food bill. I kid you not!
Twitter: @aatpahitmanis
The writer is a former NST group editor. His first column appeared on Aug 27, 1995 as ‘Kurang Manis’