KPWKM works with MAFI to encourage more women to take up hydroponic, microgreen farming

BACHOK: The Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development (KPWKM) will work with the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industry (MAFI) through a project to plant vegetables through hydroponics and microgreen farming specifically for women.

KPWKM Minister Datuk Seri Rina Mohd Harun said discussions and research on the matter were conducted from time to time to empower women in entrepreneurship through various programmes and incentives as well as training organised by government and private agencies.

"The government has provided many platforms for these women entrepreneurs to continue to develop and further boost the family and national economies.

"Focus should also be given to small women entrepreneurs, especially housewives and single mothers because these groups need a source of income that can be generated from home," she said.

She was speaking to reporters after holding a working visit to the Hydroponic Vegetable Planting Project at Rumah Tamu, here today. Kemubu Agricultural Development Authority (KADA) chairman Datuk Kamaruddin Md Nor was also present.

Commenting further, Rina said KPWKM had also implemented various women empowerment programmes in collaboration with over 20 ministries and agencies such as the Successful Women programme and the TemanNita programme with Tekun Nasional.

"I believe the role of women can be empowered in modern agriculture as a career of choice that can provide high income, which is certainly an important foundation in empowering women," she said.

Meanwhile, Davina Henry Ungas, the chief participant of the project to plant vegetables through hydroponics and microgreen farming said she and other female villagers had worked on the crops on a small scale at home when the country was hit by the COVID-19 epidemic.

"Alhamdulillah, today all these crops have been successfully grown with an initial capital of only RM200, now they are harvested five times a month with almost 1000 trees per harvest," she said.

-- BERNAMA