Bringing farming back to its glory days
By Zan Azlee

In the 1970s, agriculture contributed to 30% of the country’s economy. Now, it is less than 10%. As agriculture is one of the National Key Economic Areas (NKEA) under the Economic Transformation Programme (ETP), a lot of focus is being given.

For one, the Ministry of Agriculture and Agro-based Industry introduced the Young Agripreneur programme to encourage youth to participate in agriculture and to build up more human resource in the field.

If the industry develops, the science and technology around it will progress, and so will the income derived. But is this working? It seems like there are a lot of hurdles. So we hear from a farmer and entrepreneur himself as to what challenges he faces in his business.

“It’s very tough being in the farming industry because the work is hard and the returns are low,” said Ng Chee Yee, an independent vegetable farmer who runs Yee Bio Farm in Klang.

Ng specialises in organic produces and grows more than 20 varieties of vegetables from spinach, to sweet potatoes, turnips and corn. After a few years as a specialised engineer, he decided to make a drastic change in careers due to wanting a healthy lifestyle. [Click to read the full article at KopitiamEkonomi.Com]