Friday, December 16, 2016

Hi, long time no see.

It’s been a while since I had updated my blog. Had to take leave from our farm since July 2015. So where had I been? Due to the extremely low price of rubber, I had to go look for a job to tie me over as my funds had ran out. I went back to Kuala Lumpur and had a busy time looking for a job. Job opportunity for me is rather limited, due to my profile & age. Went for a couple of interviews and was quick to find out that young interviewers normally had some prejudices against me. I was even given a lecture on doing poultry & aquaculture by an interviewer. 

 2016. Managed to secure a job in the field of business software, thank you. Start off in January. It is a big challenge for me. Starting all over again, change my mind set, getting use to new routes to the office, office culture and be on time. I was even told to change my dressing style, to look more like an IT person. Learn and read up a lot of in this field. Just like someone fresh from college.  Had the opportunity to learn about logistics, warehouse management, supply chain & etc.
MAHA 2016. Drop in for a visit on the 10th December 2016. Found a couple of interesting things that I would like to share from MARDI. These are not new innovation, but interesting, can be DIY and scale up.


A local development by TaniMac, Seeder X. My opinion is that the concept is good for high volume of seeding. It's basically a vacuum powered suction, holding the seeds and then releasing the seeds with vacuum off, by gravity the seeds falling into the tray. Here is a video on Tray Seeder X.

I guess we can DIY for a more customized solution. The concept is pretty simple. Customized to the exact tray size for higher productivity.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w14foYnDsAw



 Planting mat. I can think of many uses for this. We can use this to seed grass and then offer as an instant grass carpet. Can also be used in slope control, Mulch, weed control & etc.

We can add value by impregnating the mat with various additives for more uses.
Hydro Pot, a system to save watering time, storing water in the pot and can refill manually or automatically. It is a much simpler method, mostly using gravity & evaporation.
Vertical Hydroponic, simple & efficient. I was searching for Hydroponic and Marijuana came up. We can scale up this model and I think by introducing air into the system, we can bring up the efficiency. An Aeroponic or Fogponic.

The material for this project are mostly off the shelve, thus lowering the set up cost.
I had always been looking for an inter crop under rubber plantation. Some of the factors should be reasonable price, readily available market, least disease prone, no obstruction to the rubber trees & etc. I still had not find any crops that I can plant under our rubber trees.














Again, concept is good, recycling. I guess logistic shall pose an issue and logistic & deployment cost may not be justifiable.

The pressure syringe caught me eyes. Not only can it do inoculation for  Gaharu, we can use it to treat trees.


Yes, I had read about air pruning of roots and it's benefits.
Micro propagation of pineapple. I wonder if the concept is similar to banana.
This is most welcome,as I remembered while I was planting papaya, the shelve life is only about a week. If we can prolong it, we can sell further, expanding the market.



































2017. Am planning to get back into the agriculture industry. Hopefully I can secure a job related to farming/ plantation. Maybe have some time of going back to our farm for a visit and make new strategy for the fruit trees. Rubber prices had consolidated slightly now and hopefully can strengthen further in 2017. Hope to spend some time writing for my blog and FB. In FB we have Avocados Lovers Malaysia and Avocado & Fig Wholesale.

Shall be starting off 2017 with shifting house, go on a vacation and find a job in Agriculture.

2 comments:

  1. Hi Raymond,
    Please remain strong and optimistic. i am sure you will be back Keningau in near future.

    Best of luck

    Heng

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    Replies
    1. Hi Heng,
      Thank you. Yes, am planning to visit next year (2017) to review and make strategic future plans. I shall most probably have more resources too. Hoping that rubber price is strengthening and with more areas qualifying for tapping, I guess the farm should be moving from red to black.
      My strategy shall more probably to get the fruit trees ready for production, maybe 2 years down the road and maybe explore herbs planting beneath rubber trees.
      Personally, had always been (self) motivated and I guess this is one of the prerequisite of an entrepreneur. Yes,I should get by with helps from friends, support from love ones and lots of blessing from up above.
      How's your set up going? Interested to do some write up? Can invite you as a guest writer here?

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