Approximately 100,000 Malaysians were laid off or lost their jobs since the start of the Movement Control Order (MCO). Those working in the service sector were highly affected by the pandemic and many couldn’t cope with the prolonged lockdown resulting in cutting manpower, reducing wages and being laid off.
A former telecommunication store manager, Mohd Saifullah Che Mat was among 10,000 Malaysians who lost their jobs due to the pandemic. Mohd Saifullah who is also a graduate of University Malaysia Sabah (UMS) lost his corporate job in March last year due to the telecommunication shop not being able to operate during the MCO.
But now, he is taking a different path that he’s not familiar with and surprisingly ace in doing it. He is now a successful farmer earning a five-figure income monthly.
Starting with only RM4,000 cash in hand
According to Mohd Saifullah, he was disappointed when he lost his job and couldn’t think of anything. But, he refused to grieve and tried really hard to cope with it. He decided to jump into agriculture by planting 800 green chilli pepper plants on the land owned by his father at Kampung Chuchoh Puteri, Kelantan. All of it with a capital of RM4,000 in his hand.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t doing good. He suffered a great loss in his first attempt to plant chilli peppers. His crops were totally damaged because he had no knowledge of agriculture, let alone how to grow chilli peppers.
But, his first attempt was a fail
However, the failure did not break his spirit to do it again. But, this time he seeks helps from other mentors and also learn farming through Youtube.
After failing with his first attempt to plant chilli peppers, he then tried to plant 1,200 eggplant plants conventionally. In a week alone, he harvested around 300 kilograms of eggplants in a day with sales reaching RM800. Looking at the good returns and lucrative income, he started to cultivate 1,000 bird’s eye chilli plants using the fertigation method. This time, he received a grant worth RM10,000 from the Rubber Industry Smallholders Development Authority (Risda).
Through multiple experiments of planting bird’s eye chilli, he started to create something different which is by using the fertigation method. It is because, fertigation is easier to manage, save costs and also reduce the risk of plants infected by pests.
His hard work finally paid off when he earns up to RM10,000 per month
After few months of planting bird’s eye chilli, Mohd Saifullah now can breathe a sigh of relief when all his hard work finally paid off. The crop generates around 70-100 Kilograms of bird’s eye chilli. The chilli was sold at a price of around RM12 to RM15 per kilogram – according to the current market price.
He shared that chilli farming is not only able to give good returns but also lucrative income within a short period of only around 45 days. Besides chilli has a long lifespan where you can enjoy the harvest for about one year.
He not only sells his chilli in his area but also outside of Kelantan such as Johor, Selangor, Perak and Kuala Lumpur where the demand is always high. Mohd Saifullah who now earns up to RM10,000 a month advised younger people who lost their source of income due to the Covid-19 or had difficulty finding jobs to try their luck in agriculture. He emphasised that this industry has the potential to provide lucrative income, but it requires hard work.
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