No regrets for manager who left comfy job to be a farmer
TEMERLOH: Not many young adults would give up a comfortable salaried job and sweat it out in the field, but that is exactly what Mohamad Amir Hasridz Bakar did.
Leaving his tie, suit and RM4,000 monthly pay as manager of a telecommunications company behind, Mohamad Amir took the plunge and signed up for the Temerloh Agriculture Office’s agropreneur programme.
Now, after almost six years of toiling in the sun and mud, he has no regrets making that decision.
“My late father was a well-known farmer in this area when he was young and this is what motivated me to follow in his footsteps,” he said in an interview.
Mohamad Amir said he used what little savings he had to start a small-scale farm, growing chillies using the fertigation method – simultaneous fertilisation and irrigation by adding fertiliser to the water supply.
The crop was a success and that encouraged him to lease 0.7ha of land in Kampung Berhala Gantang from the Rubber Industry Smallholders Development Authority to plant cucumber using the same method.
“I’m able to harvest about one metric tonne of cucumbers daily and I’m able to earn much more than what I was getting as a salaried worker,” he said.
He now has three permanent staff and two part-time employees.
His wife Nordini Hashim helps run the operation.
He also plans to open seven more cucumber farms under his Bakar Fresh Farm brand.
Mohamad Amir, who received a grant of RM40,000 from the Government and attended several training courses under the agropreneur programme, said he was grateful for all the guidance he had received from the Agriculture Department.
“I hope to expand the farm to 10ha, and hope the Government can help,” he said. — Bernama