Yes, that's the pricing nowadays. There's an acute shortage everywhere. Also don't forget that a number of our glove makers are also expanding overseas plantations, so seeds and clones will be needed in huge quantities.

[quote=chinyen,Mar 15 2011, 09:31 PM]

i thought of collecting food wastes from eateries to lower the cost if i plan to go large scale(provided if i do it with a bicycle around the area)...after surveying a couple of them, the feedbacks are better than what i have expected to get. the foodstallers are more than willing to let me have these wastes as food wastes are just rubbish to them and wouldnt cost anything. i asked how would they like to be paid in return for the food wastes that i will be collecting everyday, they reacted like 'why would i charge you to have my rubbish? it's just...rubbish' . i wonder if it is illegal to collect wastes like this? (i havent start though, havent find a right place)

because, according to the law of waste management, it is illegal to gather or assemble large amount of wastes without permission. that means we have to get a permit to do so. if it is avoidable or unnecessary, of course it will be much easier..so is this act of collecting wastes considered as an illegal one?

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Added on March 15, 2011, 9:32 pmoh, thanks TS!!

Hi Chinyen, in The Star today http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=...6468&sec=nation,
NGOs keen on recycling business must register

Thursday March 31, 2011
NGOs keen on recycling business must register

MALACCA: Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) that are keen to venture into the recycling business, including for charity, will soon be required to register with the Solid Waste Management and Public Cleansing Corporation.

This is to streamline activities related to solid waste manage- ment. It will be enforced under the Solid Waste and Public Cleansing Management Act.

Under the Act, licensed private contractors who are involved in garbage collection and other types of waste management will be compelled to register their companies and organisations.

Chief executive officer of the corporation Datuk Zaini Md Nor said the implementation of the Act would help to standardise solid waste management.

“The exercise is not meant to burden the contractors or NGOs but it's for more efficient monitoring and bringing solid waste management to be on par with developed nations,” he told reporters after launching a seminar on solid waste management organised by Southern Waste Management Sdn Bhd in Ayer Keroh here yesterday.

He said the corporation, which was set up in 1998 to oversee the three waste management concessionaires Alam Flora Sdn Bhd, Southern Waste Management Sdn Bhd and Northern Waste Sdn Bhd would have more clout under the Act.

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Added on March 31, 2011, 10:31 am[quote=chinyen,Mar 26 2011, 09:38 PM]
anyone made it to the Organic's Day at SS2 just now? there were lots of organisations supporting permaculture,organic farming , composting, enzyme making and a lot more...

[/quote]
Found this in the net. 6th Organic Day 6th Organic Day on the Star TV.

This post has been edited by MrFarmer: Mar 31 2011, 10:34 AM

Hi, would like to ask to do farming biz do you need to go for courses at Jabatan Pertanian or other courses first before venturing into it ? Or some of you are DIY sell leaner ? Just curious.....

thanks mr farmer!!

HI Ohiki, life is full of surprises. Farming is just like any other field, you need not be a mad scientist to venture into it. There are farmers with a Doctorate and there are farmers who had never step foot in a school. I guess as with any field, common sense rule, willingness to learn, experiment and most of all talk with everyone in this field. Start small and expand within you capability. Also you might want to consider have a mentor with good experience, that shall shorten your learning curve. Should you have the resources to go for courses, yes, why not, that shall help. Most important it's the passion inside you, your self motivation as with any fiels, there are up and down.
I am one of those that combine self learning, sharing and communicating with others that shares this passion. I am also lucky to have team up with a partner (mentor) that had spent/ used up some money to learn up farming.
Farming is fun, adventurous, tiring, and it does bring a sense of accomplishment. It is also stress releasing (if you are stressful). I can still remember when i first handle the grass cutter. It was like me against the weeds.
Well, whatever you choose, wish you'll have a happy career.
Say, how I missed food in Ipoh! Maybe I'll do a quick trip to Ipoh for some nice food.

Thank you MrFarmer !

Your words are very inspirational...

You are most welcome. We hope you'll be here to share your thoughts, doubts, success, failure, happiness & sadness in the course of farming. Special thanks should goes to TS, Para (aqua guy), co-TS Rexis (agri guy) & Micheal (the scientist/lab guy ). I'm just here to hitch a ride and help out. Also I have too much time to kill as I'm away from our farm. I'm on my third day with n upset tummy (no brake)
A reminder to all, Health is Wealth! Happiness is key to longevity. When health is down, the fire of passion and motivation goes down too.

Just to share some pictures.

Very sad, only two chicks survived.

Second batch, we manage eight, hopefully all survive.
They run freely on the farm and are expose to natural predators. We are planing to built a coop to offer them better protection. We had also manage to sourced for rice barn and shall order some to supplement their diet.

at the moment, the gathering for this weekend 9th april will be cancelled and postponed to a future date

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anyone has a systematic way to plan a schedule for the things to do at a farm ???

like a timetable or planning schedule for planting ?

im currently looking for this infor and still collecting and learning bee keeping.
I need one box of Italian bee, 2-4 months left at oil palm land,let the bee hunt and find the source,after 4month like tat,can collect the honey.Can collect up to 5-10 litre of honey for one box,depend.
the problem is i dont have the contact list to buy my honey...im planning June/July to start invest this bee keeping.
I think this is low risk investment.

Currently looking for supplier(Italian bee) and buyer(honey).

HI Danny, me have interest too to do some bee-keeping too. Did some reading and this guy claim that Australian bees has higher productivity and are less aggressive (compared to local Malaysian bees).
I think I can most probably DIY the bees House from designs found in the internet. Do you have any good design? This guy import direct from Australia, wonder how he clear customs & veterinary. The Australian Bee queen is packed in a tube, with some honey and a couple of workers bees and is about AUD$25, being ship via post, marked urgent, honey bees.
Care to share if you find suppliers for bees in Malaysia? Preferably in Sabah. Otherwise I shall have to try attracting wild bees.
As for marketing the honey, not to worry too much as Honey can be kept for a long time, hehe.

My (personal) view on Bee-Keeping, this is a viable project if taken as a supplementary/part time project. I guess it's difficult to go in and just do purely Bee-Keeping, as you'll need a big area with flowering plants to provide nectar. It's a very good supplementary project, as most of the cost are only the set-up cost. Bee-keeping equipments (house, suit, glove, hat, smoking machine, honey extractor) last for a long time. The bee queen shall only need to be replaced a couple of years (higher production) and you do not need to feed the bees (only on special occasions). Caring is also minimal. Well Good luck to you & me, hehe.

Hi MrFarmer,i know the local brand honey(giantb) produce in Melaka which is the biggest bee farm in Malaysia.
They do provide a training for outsider and teaching them about bee knowledge.Beside that,they also sell one box of Italian bee and alot of equipment. Can buy the suitable nice design house(many floor and many layer,price also different) from the bee farm.
I think i will pay a visit to the place to learn more about bee-breeding and planning to buy some equipment and one box of Italian bee. From what i know, they do provide a full range of apiservices.
erm,i think marketing need license, so is better to find someone can buy honey from me then they can do a process and labeling to sell in the market.
I am interested with the Australia bee,mind to know how to get it?

Thanks.

as a small part of CSR,

we are allocating 1/2 ac of land for Herb Planting that will be distributed out for those who need it.

I am now in contact with a few herb planters for suggestions on which chinese herbs that are able to help people and then i will be planting those at the farm.

If you have any knowledge of the herbs that can help or the seed, please dont hesitate to PM me so i can plant them to help people

Guys,

Please be very careful when you bring in foreign biological materials (be it microbe, animals, or plants); unless you have an enclosed environment or proper safeguard systems where the chances of escape are almost negligeable(eg. a way of containing the queen and any future queens from escaping or "swarming"), please do not bring in anymore foreign species.

In addition, please make sure whoever you get your bees from are qualified and certified (properly), as you wouldn't want to bring in the disease that is killing off the European and American bees into Malaysia.





This may be my own perspective, but I believe that instead of trading the local type of cultivar for a foreign one, a smart farmer either works with, or around the local cultivar, to maximize its potential. My thoughts are that local cultivars (be them plants, animals, of microbes) have been developing in the local environment for a long enough period to become well adapted to the area, including tolerance to weather fluctuations, diseases, predation etc. By working with (eg. selective breeding, proper animal husbandry etc.) and working around (eg. influencing the environment parameters, nutritive content, growth factors etc.), a more desirable result will be obtained in the long run.

Just because a foreign breed has been noted to have higher yields, faster growth or better temperament elsewhere, that doesn't mean it will suits every locality or country. On the contrary, it might now perform well enough, leading to economic losses; or it might perform too well, and lead to excess and wastage, again causing economic losses. Personally, I'm not sure if the short tem gains are worth the long term losses.

agree with michael J on this, too many 'foreign' disease destroying for farms nowadays.

Work Smart people

Thank you for the sound advise. Advise noted. Thank you Micheal & Para.

Looks like I shall have to look into trapping the local bee queen. Anyway, the bee project is of no urgency, so I'll most probably learn more first or to find a sifu (mentor) before I start. Shall keep you guys posted.

What you might want is to look for the stingless bees of South East Asia. They are usually from the genus Trigona, and are quite common throughout the Indo-Australian neotropics.

This is just a thought, but I believe it should work. The Trigona genus of stingless bees are quite closely related to the Melipona genus from Mexico, which are commonly used in vanilla plantations to pollinate vanilla flowers (as opposed to hand pollination). Intercropping vanilla plants with suitable structure-crops (like coconut) that produces honey, and setting up apiaries amidst those crops, might allow the grower of vanilla to increase production. Just so you know, Trigona genus are also known as "orchid bees", due to their love for sweet-scented orchids.

after 2 rounds of ploughing & initial fertilization, the place is ready for corn planting by the end of the week



those experienced guys, am i doing it right ?

Thanks Micheal. Advise noted.

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Added on April 14, 2011, 10:21 pmHI Para, nicely done lei. With automated watering some more, hehe. Say how much you pay for the sprinklers? You planting for fun or commercial? If commercial I think you can save a lot of money as I think it's "over" done. From the looks of the picture, I think you land is not water logged and looks good, so I guess you don't even have to plough and make the bed. Too soft and the roots can not have a firm grip and could topple when there is strong wind. I had seen kampung folks just cleared the weeds and start planting. Not sure if it'll give higher yield if done properly, hehe. Also with the present rainy season (not sure on your area), I have some dying due to too much water (water logged).

Normal planting suggestion is 3 seeds per hole, I tried some with 2 seeds this time, let' see how it goes during harvesting. Also you can save some seeds by leaving the area where you have trees (Guava?). Above are just my personal opinion for the sake of discussion only.
Well good luck. Let us know your progress.

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Added on April 21, 2011, 7:19 pmHi Guys, was talking with a guy who suggested planting Nilam (PATCHOULI/ PONGOSTEMON CABLIN /INSECT REPELLANT PLANT/ POKOK PENGHINDAR SERANGGA). It can start with the first harvest in 6 months and then subsequently every 3 months. The leaves are used to abstract oil by distilation. The oils is usd for insect repellant, aroma therapy, medical, cosmetic, perfume & etc. It's supposely planted in Indonesia, Malaysia, Caribbean, China, India, Thailand, Mauritius, Philippines, West Africa, Vietnam. Seems to be very popular in Indonesia.

Anyone has any information to share on this? Like is there any one collecting the leaves, and collection pricing?

This post has been edited by MrFarmer: Apr 21 2011, 07:19 PM

any update on this thread ?

been waiting and waiting.

I think i will start m fertigation chilli at hulu langat .
there is endless supply of fresh water from stream.

FRESH water i mean.

Hi NelsonBoy, yes fertigation Chilli, interesting subject, had been doing some research but had not started yet (me always think only, no action hehe). From my research, you do not actually need too much water for fertigation, i see people even using tap water, but I guess you'll save on your water bill and if your area is large, it's quite substantial. Anyway, with fresh clean water supply, there are lots of things you can do.

Again from my research, it's the nutrient inside the water, think it's available in the net. Just read it the other day. Took these picture at MAHA2010. I guess the mechanical aspect is quite simple, a pump, timer/control, pipping.



Me, I've germinated some seeds and guess it'll be ready for planting next month. I'll most probably plant it the conventional kvillage style way 1st and learn up the trait.

Good luck on your project and do keep us updated. Also we'll love to visit your farm, starting/production stage, if it's ok.

Farming need a lot of patience, time, passion, motivation, hard work (mentally & physically hehe) and good results only in a long time. Please everyone, do drop by this topic and keep farming alive, share your thoughts, experience, success, failure joy and sadness. We can cheer each other on and provide the most needed moral support when some one venture into farming.

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Added on May 2, 2011, 12:14 pmDue the the high Rubber price, I came across this new tapping on a wild rubber tree. Note the cut, it's still new. A simple plastic bag to collect the latex will do.

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Added on May 2, 2011, 12:29 pmClearing of land with old rubber trees. This was based on the bartered trade system. The contractor clear the land for free, and get the rubber wood for sale. A double win co-operation.


This post has been edited by MrFarmer: May 2 2011, 12:29 PM