PUTRAJAYA, Feb 24 — Products from community gardens in the Federal Territories will be commercialised to provide more business opportunities to their operators, Federal Territories Ministry secretary-general Datuk Seri Rosida Jaafar said.
She said products like local ‘kelulut’ honey, cincau and vegetables will be commercialised by the ministry and Putrajaya Corporation with the assistance of the Malaysian Agricultural Research Development Institute (MARDI) and the Agriculture Department.
For online markets, the ministry will cooperate with the Entrepreneur and Cooperatives Ministry to commercialise products, she added.
“They (operators) must make (garden communities) as a business and not only for basic necessities,” she told reporters after visiting the Federal Territories’ Garden Community Bazaar Programme here today.
She visited the Garden Community 4 operated by 37 Precinct 14 individuals and their products include cincau, sambal hitam and crops like spinach, kangkung, mustard greens and brinjal.
Garden Community is an urban farming programme conducted in the Federal Territories of Putrajaya, Kuala Lumpur and Labuan to reduce the cost of living for urban folk through the production of their own food.
She said the Garden Community programme will be expanded to several other locations in an effort to encourage urban farming.
“In Putrajaya, we have 15 Community Gardens….open areas not for recreation or green reserves could be used for urban farming,” she said.
Rosida added that the Garden Community Bazaar programme would be continued on a much bigger scale like the Malaysian Agrculture, Horticulture and Agrotourism Exhibition (MAHA).
