BY NUR NATASHA AIDA ISMAIL
KUALA PILAH: Once a factory technician, Azmi Abu, 47, is today a corn grower earning a few hundred thousand ringgit with each harvest from his 76-acre cornfield.
The success he’s reaped has even made him more eager to increase his production of sweet corn and purple corn (also known as King Purple corn) to meet export demand.
It’s not been all plain sailing for this father of four who used to earn a fixed salary of RM3,500 in a factory in Senawang before trying his hand at corn growing without any knowledge of the matter.
“I started to develop an interest in cultivating corn after meeting some corn growers, so with a capital of RM3,000, I began growing corn in 2007 on a part-time basis as I was not ready to quit my job,” he said, explaining that he planted three acres of sweet corn on land he rented in Tanjung Ipoh, Kuala Pilah.
“But I faced lots of problems, such as uneven tree growth, abnormal corn ears and a caterpillar invasion of the cornfield. So, in the beginning, there was pretty much no yield,” he told Bernama here.
Azmi then sought advice from the Kuala Pilah Agriculture Office and the ‘Pertubuhan Peladang Kawasan Tanjung Ipoh’ (Tanjung Ipoh Farmers Organisation), and thereafter, he was sent to attend courses on corn cultivation.
The courses taught him about correct and systematic corn-growing methods, and this enabled him to succeed in his efforts and expand his corn growing to cover 17 acres in Kampung Parit Mainau, Kuala Pilah. This venture was so successful that he decided to quit his job in 2008.
“Today, I grow about 70 acres of sweet corn with a yield of about 400,000 corncobs, and six acres of King Purple corn with a yield of about 60,000 corncobs per season, on private land in Kampung Ampang Tinggi, in Kuala Pilah.
“In terms of revenue, the average price of one sweet corncob is about RM0.70, while the King Purple is priced at about RM1.40 per corncob,” he said.
Azmi’s cornfield can be harvested three times a year, with the produce supplied to a corn processing plant in Melaka which processes corn kernels and ‘retort sweet corn’ for distribution all over the country.
He also buys back some of the processed corn and resells it to the Negeri Sembilan branch of the Federal Agricultural Marketing Authority (Fama).
The entrepreneur stresses that corn cultivation might seem easy but it is not. It includes systematic fertiliser scheduling as well as careful monitoring of the field against caterpillar attacks which can damage an entire crop. There’s also the danger of floods, with one incident occurring just before harvest day, damaging 17 acres of corn and resulting in a loss of about RM60,000.
But this go-getter is unfazed by the challenges, and neither is he resting on his laurels.
He has more plans on the horizon and this includes turning an abandoned 80-acre paddy field into a cornfield, as early as this month. − Bernama
