Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Real organic rice


The original and real organic rice come from the natives (orang asli) deep inside the jungle. Only a small area in Peninsula Malaysia is still being utilized by the native to cultivate hill rice. With modernization and better road and availability of motorcycles many of those villages nearby town no longer practice this really labour intensive cultivation. It is basically a slash and burn cultivation - using only parang(machete) to cut the trees and bamboos.

The planting season starts in July/Aug every year and by Sept the land is cleared and burned. Planting is in September and harvesting is around January. The padi will be cut/harvest by hand and the husk remove by manual pounding in a wooden mortar. Dried padi can be stored for 2-3 years but most of the time it can't last that long as the asli community is a very caring group. The poor and hungry will be help with the rice.
Crystal clear water

A special sign - split tree

Nearly burned and ready for planting, beyond the hills lies Bertam Valley, Cameron Hlands.

Another view

Young rice plants


Asli beauty

School holiday time

Sunday, September 19, 2010

Harvesting cili fertigasi and CameronHighland's photos

It took me a while to start writing and posting the photos again. Kind of busy with new products to launch and test of concept. In fact I was up in Cameron H'land studying the drip and NFT system the farmers are currently using there. Have already in mind to do a water treatment trial to see if there will be better uptake of fertilizers and thereby increasing growth or reduce rates of fertilizer. Many years ago in Serdang Mardi station I sold a few magnetizer units but unfortunately the results were not consistent, partly due to not a very clear understanding of the behavior of water under magnetization. Hopefully will be able to do better now.

Harvesting in progress now.....


Some beautiful blooms....

Cameron lily

unusual fruit in Equatorial Hotel's garden

Strawberry belong to HJ Khairani

Earlier photos of cili fertigasi

This is a short variety

Thursday, July 15, 2010

Fertigasi cili - lebih cergas dan lumayan dgn Fotogen100

Will be doing some demo in fertigation crops like rock melon and chilli. This plot is in Sg.Buloh area and we are just 20 days after transplanting. Just too bad that there will be no comparison as the farmer has instructed the supervisor to spray the whole area after seeing that the treated plot is indeed growing faster than the untreated plot. Will update periodically as the plants progress...... more harvest than before????!!!!!!!!!!

Romy - bertugas di plot sini. 20 hari selepas tanam dlm beg

Jangkitan keringting daun


pokok yg sihat pd 20 hari. 20days after transplant

20 days

puting bunga mula keluar. Flower buds appearing

Fotogen100 disembur 14 hari sekali

cergas & cepat

semua 4000 beg.

Friday, July 9, 2010

Social Development visit to natives villages

Visiting the interior of peninsular Malaysia where the natives - orang asli , are located along the Jelai River. This area is roughly right in the center of our peninsular. Ten years ago, we have to start the journey by boat and then start walking for 2-3 hours before you arrived at the first village. Today you can drive up to the first village by 4 wheel-drive jeep and continue to the other villages. Not much development except for the road which have help tremendously to bring essential food and take out agriculture /jungle products. I am trying to bring agricultural knowledge and technology in the hope that life will be better for our natives friends.

Signboard indicating to 'pos' as in the red indian trading post
Usually a pos will have a school and clinic

Birth control is alien to the natives

Large scale banana planting has started in the villages after the road was improved
and more traders started to trade with the orang asli.

With a 75 yrs old friend who has just become a father.

Beautiful butterflies

Tapioca plants up on the hills. Last year rice was planted with the tapioca.

another shot of the tapioca

pounding padi to remove the husk

Jelai River - may be the site of a hydropower station

hanging bridge over the river

Drying fire wood outside the house

Hibiscus flower

Another village

Pos Lenjang

Children everywhere - have to bring a lots of sweet

Friday, June 18, 2010

Higher rice yield using Fotogen 100 even in hot weather

We have just completed the 3 test plots in Sekinchan, Selangor this week. The usual weather pattern for this part of the year played havoc on the farmers and their yield(income). The first season planting always give a lower yield than the second season mainly due to the higher temp - an increase of 1 degree C will result in 10% reduction in yield. This year it was hot and strong wind also damaged many areas - 3 of our plots were affected with one which was quite severe. Overall we managed to get from 10 - 15% increase in yield with the farmers very happy and wanted to continue with the test for the second season. We are planning to get more farmers to use our Fotogen100 for the second season - may be a special discount will be given to encourage more farmers to start buying Fotogen 100.

Two harvesters working side by side

Unloading at the collection centre before sending to Kedah for planting seed processing.
Kedah seed producers buy MR219 variety from Sekinchan.

Transferring the rice grains to trailer

Close-up view

Half the field harvested

Friday, June 11, 2010

Dragon Fruit Resistant to diseases

Just came back from business trip to Johor which is the southern state in peninsula Malaysia. I have sold a small amount of a more concentrated formula which is named 'Fotoplus300'. This product is recommended to specific crops which are prone to bacterial and viral attack with secondary infection by fungus. One such crop is the dragon fruit, a rather fast maturing plant and come into fruiting less than a year after planting in the field. This particular 12 acres farm is now into 2 months of using Fotoplus300. The disease attack has drop more than 50% from the visual signs on the stems and fruits. The plant has started to develop stronger new stems that showed sign of resistant. Hopefully we can achieve total recovery in another 2 months. Below are some of the photos taken.