City Boy Finds Peace In Farming

Sunday, October 1, 2006
By K. S. USHA DEVI

RAWANG: Three years ago Yahqappu Adaikkalam left his restaurant business in Kuala Lumpur, picked up farming tips from books and the Internet and started an organic farm in Batu Arang.

Now, he is contented tilling the land and waking up to the sounds of the cock crowing and birds chirping.

BACK TO BASICS: Yahqappu taking time from his farming work near Batu Arang in Selangor to pose for photographs recently.

He feels he has found his paradise.

“After being in the food industry for six years, I decided that I wanted to lead a simple life without the pressures of living in the city,” said the 32-year-old bachelor.

Yahqappu, from Selayang, decided to become a vegetable farmer in 2003.

He was lucky to find a 0.6ha land about 1km away from this town where he also rears goats, chickens and ducks.

“I had gone to the Gombak Land Office to get information on land that was available for farming but was unsuccessful.

“Then a friend of mine told me about the land here,” he said.

There is no television or radio in his farmhouse, which is a small wooden shack he calls home.

He gets his electricity supply from a battery and has all the necessary kitchen utensils.

Water is sourced from a well that he dug with the help of friends and he pays a monthly rental of RM150 for the land.

“It is more of a personal philosophy to live a community lifestyle and to work the earth,” he said.

For income, Yahqappu sells his produce of long beans, brinjals, small chillies, okra, spinach and beans.

He also grows bananas and papayas. To fertilise the plants, he uses cow dung.

“I make at least RM100 a day selling the produce to organic shops, friends and neighbours who opt for organic vegetables,” he said.

“Organic vegetables are not cheap and the market is small,” he said.

Yahqappu said running the farm required patience, diligence and hard work.

He acquired his farming skills through trial and error.

“There have been many instances that the vegetables are attacked by insects,” he said, pointing to a brinjal plant that had been destroyed by red ants.

“I learnt about the planting vegetables and toiling the land from books and the Internet,” he says.

Visitors, including foreigners, have dropped by his farm and that was when Yahqappu realised its tourism potential.

However, he has no intention of turning the farm into a tourist attraction.

“People hear about my farm through word of mouth.

“My main intention is to find a balance in my life and for the farm to remain as it is without any commercialisation.

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