GUANGZHOU: State Agriculture, Fisheries and Food Industry Minister Datuk Jamawi Jaafar has welcomed an idea to turn unused urban land into community gardens, giving people without land of their own individual plots where they can grow vegetables.
His support has encouraged residents living in urban condominiums
Jamawi said his ministry is exploring a model used at the Mingzhu Modern Urban Agricultural Experimental Park in Nansha, Guangzhou.
The approach is similar to the kitchen garden concept that Sabah has been promoting.
To move the initiative forward, Jamawi said discussions had been held with Kota Kinabalu City Hall (DBKK) to identify unused land that could be developed for the project.
“One thing that caught my attention was the practice of giving people in urban areas who do not own land their own plots to grow different kinds of vegetables. They can tend to them after work or on weekends,” he said.
Jamawi made the comments to reporters after visiting the Mingzhu Modern Urban Agricultural Experimental Park in Nansha, near here today.
The visit was part of the Malaysia-China Chamber of Commerce (MCCC) Sabah delegation’s four-day programme in Guangzhou.
Meanwhile, MCCC Sabah president Datuk Dexter Lau proposed that the Sabah Agriculture Department create a dedicated division to evaluate investment profitability and help investors identify complementary products and business opportunities.
He said the visits would give local businesses a better understanding of agriculture’s commercial potential and help them find ways to increase returns through diversification.
Datuk Dexter said he was impressed by China’s specialised agricultural sectors, which include food production, fisheries, the Blue Economy and landscaping.
This structure enables businesses to explore different sources of income.
He recommended that Sabah take a similar approach by developing complementary activities such as aquaculture, which could deliver higher profit margins and make agricultural investments more viable.
