Start your new year with growing your own vegetables: CAP

The Consumers’ Association of Penang (CAP) has advised Malaysians to start the 2024 with growing   their own vegetables.

CAP believes, the 2024 will be more challenging to consumers on food prices.

To reduce the burden of vegetable price increases CAP urged the Malaysian consumers to grow any type vegetables and herbal plants in beginning of the New Year.

The FAO projections indicate that world food demand may increase by 70 per cent by 2050, with much of the projected increase in global food demand expected to come from rising consumer incomes in regions such as Asia, Eastern Europe and Latin America.

The prices of greens have been increasing in recent days and expected to last for another year.

As more rain and flood is causing more hardship to farmers.

The climate crisis is one of the leading causes of the steep rise in global hunger.

Climate shocks destroy lives, crops and livelihoods, and undermine people’s ability to feed themselves.

Hunger will spiral out of control if the world fails to take immediate climate action.

Global fertilizer prices have climbed even faster than food prices, which remain at a ten-year high themselves.

The effects of the war in Ukraine, including higher natural gas prices, have further disrupted global fertilizer production and exports – reducing supplies, raising prices and threatening to reduce harvests.

High fertilizer prices could turn the current food affordability crisis into a food availability crisis, with production of maize, rice, soybean and wheat all falling in 2022.

Many farmers contacted by CAP already complaints about their daily problems. Including prices of fertilizer, unable to get workers to work in their farm and continues of raining.

As such, we are urging consumers to easily grow their own vegetables at home, which can be cost effective, planting edible greens did not require a big space.

Fruiting plants like okra, brinjal, chillies and leafy vegetables like sawi, kangkong, kalian, bayam as well as perennial plants mint, pegaga, kesum and selom could be easily grown, even on a balcony.

Commonly-used household items such as milk cartons, juice and drinking bottles, and other small containers could be used for plants which have smaller root systems like leafy vegetables.

For plants with deeper roots like okra, brinjal, chilly, items such as biscuit tins, five-litre oil cans and five to 20-litre water bottles could be used as growing containers.

With proper sunlight, water and compost, anyone can grow and harvest vegetables even in small places.

CAP urged Malaysians practise urban gardening effectively as long as they ensure their plants get some sunlight.

N V Subbarow
Natural Farming coordinator at
Consumers Association of Penang

Press statement,  1 January 2024