KUCHING: Grab your seat for a half-day free-of-charge talk, ‘Go Healthy with the Gurus of Organic’ at MaGIC, Borneo 744 on this Saturday at 9.00am to 2.00pm. This event is part of Young Southeast Asean Leaders Initiative’s (YSEALI) outbound project funded and supported by US State Department, Malaysian Global Innovation and Creativity Centre (MaGIC), Department of Agriculture Sarawak, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Morganic Farm and WWF-Malaysia.
The talk will feature guest speakers such as Morgan Chua from Morganic Farm Kuching, Shariah Umar from Department of Agriculture Sarawak, Make Jiwan from Universiti Putra Malaysia, Bintulu and Christopher Hiryak from Little Rock Urban Farming, Arkansas, USA.
Topics of the talk will be focusing on understanding the current situation on organic farming in Malaysia, training and sharing ideas with rural communities in Ba’ Kelalan (Sarawak) on vegetable farming, emphasising on organic farming so that people in the city can practise urban farming, and creating awareness on availability of organic products in Sarawak.
The talk aimed at increasing the number of organic farmers who can contribute to food security, environmental sustainability and promote healthy eating among the people. Alicia Ng, alumni of YSEALI Professional Fellows Programme who has spent two weeks learning organic vegetable farming in Little Rock Urban Farming said that this talk is suitable for urban farming hobbyists to maximise small areas to farm owners who want healthy and chemical free produces.
“The event is also ideal for aspiring entrepreneurs, urban farmers, agrotech start-ups, students and local authority. “We are also aiming to develop a community that cares about eating healthily and introduce the concept of Community Supported Agriculture in Kuching. As of today, it is common for many people to start eating healthily and buy products from organic shops when person or a close family member has cancer. By then, sometimes it is a bit too late,” she added.
Apart from the talk, there will also be a Seed Swap Party after the event where all hobbyist home gardeners are invited to bring seeds or seedling to exchange with another hobbyist. According to Alicia, Seed Swap Party is very new to the Kuching community and it is an individual effort by Jean Voon, and this year and I am happy to see that the group is growing.
It is fun to see everybody planting something at home. The talk is only limited to 50 seats. For more information and registration, log on to https://events.bizzabo.com/yseali-organics or email to aliciakcng@gmail. com. Use the online Word editor program to compose visual documents in your web browser for free.
