Cultivating urban farming among Pasir Gudang folk

in line with the city’s plan to reduce its carbon footprint, Pasir Gudang City Council (MBPG) in Johor has stepped up efforts to promote urban farming.

MBPG Cendana zone councillor Ishak Mohd Yusoff said he had worked closely with the state Agriculture Department to provide training to residents living at Flat Taman Cendana to produce food in their own backyard.

“Our urban farm is located at Blok 12 where we have planted celery, cabbage, water spinach and eggplant, either on soil or via hydroponics,” he said when contacted by StarMetro.

He said future plans among the local community included planting galangal, lemongrass, torch ginger flower, pandan and oyster mushrooms.

“We are also in the midst of making serunding (floss) out of mushrooms from the farm.

“At the moment, our harvesting cycle is every three weeks, and all of the produce is sold for RM1 per 100g,” he said, adding that the farm was introduced in August last year.

MBPG Rinting 2 zone councillor Law Yiak Kwang said training and aid given by the Agriculture Department had also helped foster a sense of community and cooperation among residents at Flat Balau Taman Rinting.

“It encourages people to work together towards a common goal, strengthening neighbourhood bonds and promoting social cohesion.

“Our project started in late 2019, and it has helped reduce household expenditure on fresh produce, allowing families to allocate their resources to other essential needs,” he said.

Law said surplus produce could be sold at local markets, providing an additional income stream for participating community members.

“We have two types of farms: polybag fertigation where we plant long beans, eggplant, bitter gourd, and ridge gourd; and hydroponics where we grow leaf celery and napa cabbage.

“The money gained is also used to buy new polybags, seeds and fertilisers,” he said.

Law said they had created a sustainable system with some money earned from sales being invested back into the land and where nothing goes to waste.

Meanwhile, MBPG Kota Bestari councillor S. Mahendran said his office had sent a proposal to the city council to allow an unused plot of land in the area to be turned into an urban farm.

“Money from the urban farm can be used to help those in need.

“We already have an urban farm along Jalan Ixora 3 in Taman Bestari Perdana, but it is managed on a voluntary basis.

“We hope that with the new urban farm, we can create a more streamlined system to manage it,” he added.

Mahendran said their urban farm’s main produce currently was madu kelulut (stingless bee honey).

“We planted a few plants such as grapes, sugar cane and banana trees, but all of them were destroyed by wild boars,” he said.