BY ABIDGAIL MERTA GANGGANG & AWANG MUHAMMAD SYAHMI
KUCHING: The intense heat wave currently affecting Sarawak has taken a toll on vegetable farming in the state.
Yesterday, New Sarawak Tribune noticed some stalls selling fewer vegetables than usual when it visited local vegetable markets in Bandar Riyal Kota Samarahan and Medan Niaga Satok.
47- year-old vegetable seller, James Gomes, at the Bandar Riyal wet market, revealed slower business these days.
“The okras and eggplants are the most affected as they are getting stunted due to the lack of rain. The vegetables I harvested are not as big as before and because of that, I have to sell them off at low prices,” he said.
James added, “The same thing happened to my other vegetables like ‘kangkung’ (water spinach) and ‘ensabi’ (mustard green). Some of them have turned yellow and wilted because of the intense heat.
“If the extreme weather continues for the next three to four weeks, sellers like me will not be able to supply enough vegetables to our customers.”
To keep his vegetables alive, he told New Sarawak Tribune he needed to water his plants more often to prevent them from wilting.
The hot weather has also become a nightmare for James’ sister, Lesib Gohel, 49, who buys vegetables from farmers to sell at her stall.
“It is hard to get good quality vegetables because most of the farmers are now charging more for their crops,” she said.
Lesib said she noticed that some leafy vegetables like ‘pucuk paku’ (fiddlehead ferns) were also turning yellow and brown easily because of the heatwave.
Elaborating further, she said the skins of ‘terung asam’ (sour eggplants) were wrinkling faster than usual in one week after they were sold to sellers like her.
She also noticed some ‘terung asam’ were smaller in size and because of that, the traders were grading them differently and selling them at different prices.
“The smaller (Grade C) eggplants cost RM4 per kg, the medium-sized fruits cost RM5 per kg while the bigger size ones cost RM6 to RM7 per kg,” she added.
Meanwhile, at Medan Niaga Satok, one of the sellers, Julia Kimura, admitted the hot weather had heavily affected the vegetables grown by farmers.
She explained the farmers now needed to invest a lot more money on fertilisers to make sure that the vegetables would grow well.
“Vegetables that need a lot of water such as chilli, lime and turmeric might suffer from water stress in hot weather.
“Due to the heat, my limes are often smaller and yellow in colour. Usually, they are large and green in colour,” said the 34-year-old.
Vegetable seller, Hiong Moi, 46, pointed out that she was getting crops that were not up to the standard she wanted.
“I am recording fewer sales and less profits because of the poor crop quality.
“Due to the supply and demand, particularly during holiday seasons like Hari Raya, vendors had to raise the price of the available vegetables,” she explained.
She also shared that she had to sell poor quality vegetables cheaply in order to finish her stocks.
