JOHOR BAHRU: Under the sweltering afternoon sun in Ulu Tiram, Johor, Imran Aljunied balanced on a ladder, reaching into a tangle of vines to pluck unripe pepper berries.
Sweat plastered his sunburnt face, but he was all smiles.
“We’re harvesting black pepper today,” the 40-year-old Singaporean said.
Imran helps manage A Little Wild, a 55-hectare farm he co-founded in 2020 with two other Singaporeans and a Malaysian. The farm, a former oil palm plantation, is about the size of 77 football fields and roughly 45 minutes’ drive from the Causeway.
His work days can stretch up to 12 hours but he said it beats his previous office job at a Singapore statutory board. The father of two has also traded life in a HDB flat in Singapore for a kampung house on the farm, where he lives with his wife and two children.
“I like the whole idea of community sufficiency. I’m not relying on any entity for my food and water … This gives me a sense of independence and freedom and I’m not beholden to (anyone),” Imran told CNA.
The farm draws freshwater from a small lake within its site, and the farmers eat the produce.
Once a week, his team harvests crops like pineapple, banana, cocoa, pepper and lemongrass. They pack the produce, which is delivered to roughly 20 customers, including restaurants, based in Singapore.
The rest of the week is spent tending to the land — pruning, fertilising and closely tracking the growth of each crop.
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/asia/johor-malaysia-singaporean-farmers-crops-food-security-6063136
