KUCHING: Hydroponics with the involvement of new technology could potentially entice the younger generation to participate in commercial agriculture, said Deputy Minister of International Trade, Industry and Investment Datuk Malcolm Mussen Lamoh.
“You don’t need much sun, but definitely with proper facilities and new technology such as the Internet of Things (IoT), the younger generation, some of them (who) are graduates, could benefit from this.
“You don’t need to do what we used to do which was about subsistence agriculture, now it’s all about technology,” he said.
Mussen applauded Yu Kok Lee, the managing director for Emma Industries Sdn Bhd for creating a conducive environment for his employees to work.
“The environment is very conducive, if it’s okay, put more ventilators and it’s also a comfortable working environment for people to work,” he told reporters at a press conference during a site visit to Emma Hydroponics Farm on Thursday (Feb 29).
Mussen said he had several discussions with various stakeholders to encourage participation from the younger generation to be interested in commercial agriculture.
“There are so many agriculture graduates from Universiti Putra Malaysia;, with their experience maybe they can do something like this in the future.
“Because you can never go wrong, the population is growing and maybe by 2050, we will reach a 9 billion population of human beings worldwide, we need to feed them,” he said.
Additionally, Yu invited the younger generations to participate in farming and be a part of agriculture.
“I tell everybody that I am a farmer, without proper agriculture background training, you still can do this,” he said.
