Sustainable Farming - A Model

To be sustainable, inputs must be less than outputs. Inputs include fuel and all forms of energy, labour and raw materials. Even treatment of wastes must not consume excessive energy. For a farmer to practice sustainable agriculture, he must derive a reasonable income from his efforts.

This is a model for sustainable agriculture we developed at our farm (click to enlarge):

The only purchased inputs are corn and other feed ingredients. From here, all 'wastes' are recycled. Dung, carcasses, etc are all composted and made into high quality humus. Using humus and compost tea and proper management, an acre of land can produce 30 tonnes of high protein napia grass. This is fed to goats and fish. Using humus and compost tea, and selecting low-nitrogen demanding heritage seeds such as bayam pasir, terung telunjuk, etc we can produce abundant market vegetables.

We calculated a net income of RM3000 to RM5000 per month is possible from such a farm.

This how an acre of land may look like (click to enlarge):

Source: http://dqfarm.blogspirit.com/ (2 Nov 2009)

Ah Loong Fish Pond

Ah Loong Fish Pond

Ah Loong Fish Pond

Ah Loong Fish Pond

Ah Loong Fish Pond

Ah Loong Fish Pond

Ah Loong Fish Pond

@ Bentong

Farming goes vertical

Skyscrapers may provide new source of farmland.

(Business 2.0 magazine) -- The term "urban farming" may conjure up a community garden where locals grow a few heads of lettuce. But some academics envision something quite different for the increasingly hungry world of the 21st century: a vertical farm that will do for agriculture what the skyscraper did for office space.

Build a 21-story circular greenhouse, says Dickson Despommier, an environmental science professor at Columbia University, and it can be as productive as 588 acres of land - growing, say, 12 million heads of lettuce a year.


With the world's population expected to increase by 3 billion by 2050 - nearly all of it in cities - and with 80 percent of available farmland already in use, Despommier sees a burgeoning need for such buildings. So he talked to fellow academics at the University of California at Davis about using rooftop solar panels to power 24-hour grow lights and found NASA-like technology that would capture evaporating water for irrigation.

"We need to devote as much attention to vertical farming as we did to going to the moon," Despommier says. "It will free the world from having to worry where our next meal will come from."

It should also turn a handsome profit. Despommier's calculations peg the construction cost of a 21-story vertical farm at about $84 million, operating costs at $5 million a year, and revenue at $18 million a year, based on the price of produce at upscale Manhattan delis.

Getting product to market is one of the most expensive parts of traditional agriculture, but with a vertical farm, your retailers are just down the block. Despommier has been talking to VCs in both the United States and Europe.

The Sustainable Agriculture Initiative, a group of 20 food companies including Coca-Cola (Charts, Fortune 500), Kraft (Charts), McDonald's (Charts, Fortune 500), and Nestlé, has expressed interest, as has IBM (Charts, Fortune 500). Kristin Reynolds, program representative at the University of California's Small Farms Program, says her only concern is that vertical farming could grow too big too fast: "It needs to be developed cautiously, so it doesn't take markets away from small-scale farmers."

- By Hillary Woolley, (Business 2.0 Magazine)


Related: http://nymag.com/news/features/30020/index1.html

Money in creepy crawlies

A NEW bio-agriculture trend has emerged in Kelantan which is famed for its enterprising and conservative residents.

Since last year, many have ventured into commercial farming of worms and leeches, both slithering kinds which are usually off-limits to most people.

It has emerged that the worms and leeches apparently produce an enzyme which can be used as a compound in beauty pharmaceutical products.

One of the breeders is businessman Wan Ya Wan Yusuf, 38, from Kampung Chi Cha, Kota Baru, who has roped in his wife Noorlaila Ibrahim, 37, and six children to help manage the farm
full of the slithering worms.

Wan Ya, encouraged to venture into breeding worms by a friend last year, began importing unhatched eggs of worms from Indonesia.

He earns an average of RM300 to RM1,200 per kilo of worms, depending on the grades.

Not only are the worms sold but their faeces are sold as fertiliser to a wholesaler for RM50 per kilo, Wan Ya said.

He said his business was slowly but surely turning into a lucrative venture as at times, he could earn beyond RM5,000 per month.

He also sells the worms to a wholesaler who would distribute it to pharmaceutical agents for processing.

Over at Kemumin, Pengkalan Chepa, Khalid Abdul Rahim, who is know locally as Mat Yos, shows people about his commercial breeding of leeches at an open-space near his home.

He began breeding the leeches about two years ago after he was informed by a marketing agent that many cosmetic firms were using leeches. Leeches are also processed into an ointment as a massaging cream.

Khalid earns about RM60 per kilo of leeches and it has become lucrative enough for him to quit his day job as a welder.
- By SAZUKI EMBONG (The Star)


Related (Leeches Farming):

http://www.bernama.com/bernama/v3/news_lite.php?id=322584

http://thestar.com.my/lifestyle/story.asp?file=/2008/2/23/lifefocus/20185761&sec=lifefocus

http://thestar.com.my/metro/story.asp?file=/2008/4/11/north/20890124&sec=North

http://www.thefishsite.com/fishnews/6525/leeching-into-commercial-production

http://www.badruzamani.org/blog/?p=589

Swiftlet Farming

ALL businesses are built on blood, sweat and tears, at least in the figurative sense. But one industry thrives on another bodily fluid – saliva. Bird saliva, that is. And not just any bird. It has to be the swiftlet, whose nests of hardened spit have been a delicacy treasured by the Chinese for centuries.

Depending on the quality, marketplace and timing, a kilogramme of unprocessed edible bird nest can fetch a few thousand ringgit.

The processing, a tedious and labour-intensive affair, typically doubles the value of the nests. Quoting a senior Sabah government official, a news report early last month says bird nest is sold at RM4,000 to RM18,000 per kg.

The global market is said to be worth billions of ringgit. Thanks to its head start of 20 years or so in swiftlet farming on a commercial scale, Indonesia supplies 70% to 80% of the bird nests consumed worldwide, mainly in Hong Kong, Taiwan, China, Macau, Singapore and North America.

Dr Christopher Lim, a nephrologist who has succeeded as a part-time swiftlet farmer and has authored a how-to book on the subject, says there are about 22,000 swiftlet farms (also known as swiftlet hotels, swiftlet houses or birdhouses) in Malaysia. He estimates that there are 200 new ones every month.

The list of towns that have become known for this activity is lengthening. There are such places in just about every state. What these towns usually have in common are proximity to agricultural and forest land, and relatively low levels of industrial activity.

The first element is important because farms, plantations and jungles support the swiftlets’ diet of flying insects. The lack of factories in the vicinity matters because air pollution is anathema to the birds.

You can find many swiftlet farms in Perak (in Sitiawan, Ipoh, Teluk Intan and Taiping, for example), Pahang (Kuantan, Rompin, Pekan), Kelantan (Kota Baru, Tumpat), Terengganu (Kuala Terengganu, Kuala Besut) and Kedah (Sungai Petani).

The key attraction here is the lure of lucrative returns from a passive investment. The idea is simple – put up a well-designed and well-equipped swiftlet farm at the right spot, and the rest will fall in place. The birds will come and soon, you can keep harvesting their nests for many years.

“It’s a gold mine,” says Mohammad Azimullah, manager of Swiftlets Venture International (SVI), a consultancy outfit.

“You put in RM500,000 and if your location is good, you can net RM1mil a year within four years. Where else in the world can you find such a business?”

Kelvin Heng of Pearlnest, which does trading and consulting work, is convinced that swiftlet farming is currently the best investment opportunity in Malaysia.

He explains: “You invest only once. You don’t have to come out with money every month to pay maintenance and workers’ salaries. If the farm is successful, you can collect thousands of ringgit every month.”

References:

http://biz.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/12/13/business/2770244&sec=business

More Information:

http://swiftletfarmer.blogspot.com/

http://worldofswiftletfarming.blogspot.com/

http://smipenang.com/2007SwiftletFarmingReport.html