Hi there how is the meeting?do some summary lai..haha..

i think kianwei is from upm was it?

wheimeng- wow, outsourcing Company, Great!!,

yes, i am from UPM,wil grad 24april,how u biz? we may discuss In msn

Curious so many IT Expert interest to Agri?

oh ya, who is the land expert?absent?

hmm? Oh he was supposed to come with me. But last minute i couldn't make it. He also terpaksa change programme lor... sorry sorry..

ahaha you can add me on uu247@hotmail.com.

im not exactly doing outsourcing but doable la if required.

Welcome to New Zealand!!

cow farm in UPM, rexis , u time to collect black gold

This post has been edited by kianwei8: Apr 6 2008, 06:29 PM

plan oil palm la.. get ur revenue bac in 6 month, 1 hectare u will have 100 tree, 12 acre? u count for ur self.
or the nex big thing is plant karas tree... --> gaharu. ever heard of it? wood which is use to make perfume --. essential oil. big money man, plus seed is provide by forestry department.

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Added on April 6, 2008, 10:10 pmu wan to go agriculture--. think of duck raising, u dont go for the duck meat bt u go for its eggs. after 7 month each duck will produce an egg for u everyday. duckegg is expensive compare to chicken egg plus it is healthier than chicken egg. each egg can sell for rm0.5 cent if u have 1000 duck --. u get 500 per day . 1 month 15000 lor.. quite good eh

This post has been edited by xavi5567: Apr 6 2008, 10:10 PM

anyone got Melaka cow farm contact number?would like to contact them .

hello hello saudara dan saudari... cough cough

I am back to office and seeing so many passion flooding around this thread, certainly my mind is opened wider as a result of the gathering, I feel like there is unlimited issue to discuss about, the only constrain is time and nando's(they're closing shop). And I feel like never like before the feeling of confidence in agriculture, no doubt, agriculture is business, but you have to think big to do big business for sure.

We hv discussed much during the gathering, but this is limited to the agriculture side, Para have the aquaculture side.

Topics we discussed into is
- potential returns of agriculture(chili as example, a bit exaggerated, will post a more realistic example)
- possible risks in farming
- add value to agri product - processing
- why organic farming?
- imported agri products vs local
- the importance of niche market

Special presentation by KW about
- how does Jatropha fruit looks like
- algae oil(as future energy crop)
- food supply and demand(world/china)

QnA
- What should we do if a farm struck by disease? Is that mean the farm gone forever? (required further discussion)

I am sure I have missed out something, all the main speakers please add in.

Lets quote some words from Para



(edit add: And its because of us!)

This post has been edited by rexis: Apr 7 2008, 09:46 AM

Hello ppl,

thank you for taking your time to come and share experience and knowledge.

my summary of the Aquaculture side

- the potentials of aquaculture (Malaysia has a vast market potential with China and Hong Kong the ultimate aim)

- Malaysia's potential (enormous as Vietnam is catching up but we can still compete)

- how to deal with govt officials (bug n pester them)

- where to get info? (for localised info best bet is the Agriculture Ministry in Putrajaya and also the point above)

- concept of aquaculture

- how i am doing aquaculture environmentally? (no waste)

- financial outlay

- how to start small and grow slowly (mgengan would understand more i hope)


--------------------------

My quotes :-

a) Food definitely has a future

b) Malaysia is just in the infant stage as compared to our SEA counter parts

c) In Japan 2 ppl can manage a 5 ac farm with automation which is the future in Malaysia

d) We must strive to be hand-ons in the 1st few years then we can start to manage

e) Ask ask ask ask ask ask questions. After that ACT on them

f) A C T I O N

My lec study master during 1983 at US, he's coursemate 60somthing women,a old couple add v fully automated farm manage 800 cows at farm^^

Yes, rearing egg duck is profitable, especially when u process them into salted duck egg, longer shelf life, high price. And there is demand.

There is an issue of the AgriWorld talk about a guy who rear ducks.

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1 hectare hv 100 trees, 12 acres = 4.8 hectare, so 480 trees.

But again, planting this kind of crop is not going to be easy for fresh starter, you have to wait for at least 5 years for the tree to kick in peak production. How u survive in that 5 years?

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Added on April 7, 2008, 6:27 pm
Farm disease and sickness control

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Behind the beautiful halo of agriculture, the whooping estimated return figures, the beautiful plants and handsome truck lots of harvest, there is always the dark side, like my dad say, UK sound great, but when he went to London, he feel like crying.

So one of the devil that is eating up your nett profit is plant disease and sickness. Note that I do not mean pest here - at least you can see those nasty caterpillars, fruit flies and mites eating up your precious harvest and you can have some clue on what is causing your loss and act accordingly. Sometimes, your plant is showing really strange behavior, nothing on it but they just doesn't looks healthy, or fruit dropping, or some part just rotten, or the whole thing just died mysteriously.

There is a few thing you should check when you facing similar issue, the soil, the water, the weather, the nutrient and the plant itself as well as study the history of your land and the surrounding.

the first one is soil:
have you did any lab test on your soil(which should be done BEFORE you plant anything)? Were your plants have sufficient nutrient? Is the soil suitable? Is the pH level correct?

water:
where did you got your water from? Is it from a steam passing thru some other farm/facility? Or is it ground water?

the weather:
Is the crop burnt by sunlight? Is any shade netting required? Is it raining season? Is there any flooding or water logging?

the nutrient:
Are you using the correct fertilizer? For organic fertilizer, are your fertilizer properly fermented? Could your organic fertilizer carrying disease? Did you supplement the correct micronutrient? Or did you over fertilized your crop?

the plant:
Get samples of sick plants and send for lab test, or show to fertilizer/seed supplier, they will have a clue. Is the plant sick due to environment? Or is it a kind of virus/fungus?

The land:
What is the land being used for previously? Why the previous owner stop his business? Is it a virgin land? Is there any farm nearby that can transfer the disease?

The important thing to work out a farm is you must monitor your farm properly, dont let your worker do all your job. Whenever you spotted anything suspicious, act immediately. Like instantly dig out the entire plant and burn it, or immediately consult a professional regarding your findings.

Also, do not over stress your land. Let it rest after a cycle. As in nature, every life form suppress each other to reach a perfect balance. If we want to balance things up, the land need to take a break. Also, do crop rotation, switch with different crop. For example, if a land has planted sweetcorn for too long, a lot of pest and disease that adapted to attack sweetcorn will start to settle down in that land. If we switch to say, cassava, sweetcorn pest will die due to lack of food.

Farming is not as easy as just lay the seeds and wait.

The above is a very general on where to look into whenever your farm is stuck by a sickness and you losing harvest. There are details which I yet to have time to look into. I am not going to go into anatomy of the virus etc etc, those you have to go and read agri text book.

This post has been edited by rexis: Apr 7 2008, 06:38 PM

Hm... if we want to start small on vermicompost, where can we start from(Of cause getting the worms!)? I mean where to sell our source of final product fertiliser.

If using RM300,000.00 (IF I HAVE!) i would definately go big like this, but If we can start from RM300.00, that is a very good price for beginner to start with.

I think 1kg worms can be multiply very fast once your worm is settle and love the enviroment you create for them.

Any where to join venture of vermicompost business?

hi, i myself is quite interested in Agriculture & Aquaculture, will keep an eye on this thread and hopefully there is a chance to meet up in the future.

MODERN FARMING

KW, i think theres a local banana plantation that use light aeroplane to spray pesticide.

Welcome on board, hopefully you find the informations useful. Feel free to shooting question as there will be sifu here willing to give comments.

If I have RM300,000 then seriously there will be lots more better choice available. I would go into vegetable production, with RM300k i can utilize biotech and greenhouse and fertigation and produce high quality products.

Anyhow, vermiculture has yet to set firm in local market. But the potential is there, the next thing is up to how you establish it.

When one doing a business, you always need to do marketing for your own business, same with farming, or vermiculture. I mean, how do you sell your products? In the case, vermicompost as organic fertilizer. First you identify your customers, then, you approach them and make them aware of your product, then, close sales. It is a marketing issue here.

So who would need vermicompost here? Firstly, home gardeners, we have plenty of people around here that owns a garden, and they willing to spend on something that make their garden healthy. Then, it is the organic farmers, they will usually require larger supply compare to normal gardener. Basically the market pie of fertilizer is there, it is up to you to grab a slice from it.

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And so, you would like to start small on vermiculture, there is very simple ways to start from:

- learn about vermiculture
- make worm bins
- buy worms
- grow your worms
- expand and harvest
- market your harvest

Where do you learn about vermiculture? To success, you have to master your skill, and properly done your homework. Internet has tons of vermiculture resources and there are a community of vermiculture over the internet, they are more then willing to share what they know. Lately, I just find out that there are local vermiculture operators that organize training course for vermiculture.

How much do we need to make worm bins? You can do it as cheap as less then RM30 rather then RM300k. Very very easy, get a plastic container(Jaya Jusco sell less then RM15 for a big one, Carefour might goes lower, you can even use those cheap plastic dustbin) and fill it with water soaked shredded old newspaper(almost cost nothing). Drill ventilation holes all over the lid. Then the bin is ready to go and just wait for you to put in the worms!

You can get your first batch of worms from a local vermiculture farm, usually people find this challenging a few years back because nobody is doing vermiculture locally in Malaysia, but now, there is a few supplier available and it is possible to purchase compost worm directly, it goes like RM300-400 per kg of fresh and lively earthworms. OR, just dig some garden worm and try them out, this is usually recommended by official.

About how to grow your worms, you can try googling around the internet, I am sure there is plenty of guidelines about how and what you should or should not feed your earthworms, and how to keep them happy and healthy. Seriously, from internet, you can find much much more info about breeding earthworm then growing oil palm. Basically you do not need to spend much in feeding your earthworm, as they eat organic waaste.

After your worms settle down, and your worm colony growing, and you have meaningful scale(like you can produce 100 package of compost monthly), its time for you to harvest and expand. Harvest and bag your compost, and this will be your product, get more worm bin ready so that you can accommodate more worms and therefore your future harvest will increase.

Market your harvest! Make money from it. You can do direct selling to your neighbour, or have a visit on the local grocery shop see if they interested to put it in their shop, for the commercial prospect like farmers or even plantations, you need to have higher scale and volume(like 1 tons per week production).

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This is just a plain guidelines, for the details, each of them can expand into a full article.
(i got two supplier for earthworm if u interested, u can PM me, I want to buy, but not 1kg tat much, perhaps we can share. But not now, I yet to hv time to establish things)

Thanks for your very valueable sharing.

Let me plan on the where to place my worm bin and the worms should live for coming few yrs. I am organic gardener for passed 8yrs, I am making my own compost, growing vegetables in organic form, I think I should hv study enough about vermicompost for the passed 8 yrs. The only thing I not sure about is the fermentation level that needed by the worms.

Native worms/garden earthworm will not do a fast job/great job for vermicompost, those worm eat very slowly and little. If we need to go for vermicompost no matter is small or big set up, we go for the proper vermicompost worms. Tiger worms is very very suitable for us as beginner to start with, it more adapt to our climate compare with Lumbricus rubellus which is more productive.

When I am ready will PM you for sharing half kg of worms. I am not welling to start with 1kg, if not i start long ago...

This post has been edited by Chinchillas: Apr 9 2008, 04:07 PM

interesting topics on vermiculture, will experiment with a small scale of breeding according to some internet tips and how to.

has anyone got any live pictures of worm breeding?

You are most welcomed.

An organic farmer! It is such an honor to have you here. Feel free to post around here.

About the the ripeness of the vermicompost, it is generally described as "dark and odorless or earthy smell", that means it is ready. IMHO, to be sure, you can keep the harvested compost for a period, while make sure no decomposing occur(like internal temperature change, etc, just like making regular compost).

True, local garden worms, not to say they cant do it, people just say that they cant do it fast enough, while I have yet to make any real life comparison with local and tiger worm. I have tried to keep garden soil worm(dig them out and make them a home) and they hv survived in captivity(worm bin) for more then six months, they grew bigger size and they produced capsules. In the process, some dying occurred but those who survived, is going to do very well. The worms are released to the wild due to complaints.

I am very interested how tiger worm can do better then that.

Why? To stimulate your appetite?

Here is some good banner to put in your siggy thou

I am not talking about the ripeness of the vermicompost or the finish product-worms casting , I am talking about the food that need to feed the worms it had to be composted before feeding them, it work very fast in this way.