Hi Bro

the prospect is good for prawn farming as most of our prawns are exported to EU & USA. But please head over to Jab Perikanan for Business Advice and proposal. they are best to help you.

but also beware that currently USA might impose "Anti-Dumping Duty" due to some unscrupulous 
companies getting cheap quality prawns and resell as Malaysian prawns.

this industry has good potential.

i would like to apologise because i am not able to give your more in depth advice because i am currently in Fruit Farming, and that's my forte

Hope this helps

3) You are most welcome to visit / participate if you are near my area. We can learn together.

Hi Wodenus,

The specific section on Special Schemes pertaining to farmers states quite clearly that farmers CANNOT claim input tax credits, but only allowed to charge a flat rate additional to their products.

I just found out that specific section too.... what are your thoughts about this?

Ok, so for a business that does not generate RM500,000 in revenues there is no need to register under GST program?

So if say I have an agribusiness growing bananas on 10 acres of land, and a revenue of RM480,000 a year, I would not be obligated to register under GST program, but I will still have to bear input tax for farming materials. Is this right?

But if my acreage increases to 15 acres, and I start generating revenues of RM720,000 a year, I am therefore obligated to register under GST program, but this allows me to claim compensation for input tax paid over farming materials. Correct?

Still trying to get my head around this.....

Was at the agri shop this morning and the boss is fussing about GST. Says everything shall increase in price. Hmmmh

Hi Icehart,

Do you mean on a hobby scale, or commercial scale?

I've done a small one on a hobby scale, using recycled materials. Mine was a vertical model, using a series of pvc pipes as troughs and plastic cups as growing containers. Didn't perform as well as expected from an economics point of view.

The key constraints were the variety of crops that could be grown under tropical climates were very limited. High valued crops, like salads, tomatoes etc. do not perform well under the high heat - high humidity conditions. Although the plants did grow quite nicely, they tended to yield poorly, eg. salads tended to bolt early and therefore become bitter, tomatoes flowered well, but the fruits were constantly attacked by fungus. Spraying fungicide was a problem because the system was exposed, meaning if I sprayed any chemicals, the fish will die from the poisons.

In addition, the fish species cultivated is also critical to the economic viability of the enterprise. Easy to grow species, like tilapia are not economical for aquaponics, because pond and cage raised fishes are not only cheaper in cost, but grow a hell a lot faster and better. This means that while an aquaponics system will be producing a crop of fish every 8 months or so, a pond of cage system would have already produced 1 harvest, and already getting ready for a second harvest. Pricier species, like Jade Perch would have been a better option, except that getting fingerlings is a pain and demand in Malaysia generally low.

Still, with technology getting more accessible and cheaper by the day, aquaponics in Malaysia might still be economically viable in the near future. For now, its value might be more contained to home-growers, rather than bulk production.

Here are a few blogs and websites that detail out small scale plus commercial scale units:

http://www.ecofilms.com.au/the-cost-of-com...ial-aquaponics/
http://mahfudzaquaponic.blogspot.com/
http://www.affnanaquaponics.com/2009/06/aq...w-to-start.html

ps: Forgot to mention some things... while I've found that aquaponics systems do not work well for shorter term crops such as vegetables, fruit crops such as melons seem to do well. Back in Sepang they had a system that grew Golden Melons on aquaponics/fertigation system, and it yielded fantastically well. But they only ran it for 2 seasons, then shuttered the whole project. Dunno why, maybe they couldn't recoup the costs quick enough...

Nonetheless, if you are keen about aquaponics as a commercial enterprise, do not make the same mistakes I did by growing leafy greens and vegetables... the prices are too low to justify the system. Go with things like melons or pumpkins.

Hi Guys, I had just started a FaceBook page for my farming activities.

FigWholesale FigWholesale

Kindly like my page, thank you.


https://www.facebook.com/FigWholesale/timeline

My friend, the Agri Shop just introduced me to the local Water Melon King (planter ). Unfortunately it's over here in Sabah, otherwise I can hook him up for you. Btw, now there are collectors from Johor, buying up banana here. From Kuching collecting vegetables, like chillies & etc.

Guys any view on the budget 2015 for agriculture sector?