Ever since Malaysia’s Independence in 1957, agriculture has grown to be one of the key pillars of the economy and a staple source of food supply. However, with industrialisation and the growth of manufacturing during the 1990’s, agriculture’s prominence has been steadily declining with a growth difference of just 9% for the past 20 years. According to the (then) Minister of Agriculture, Datuk Salahuddin Ayub, the share of agriculture in Malaysia’s GDP in 2019 was recorded at just 8.2% from the peak of 45.38% in 1961.
The backbone of the agriculture industry in Malaysia, namely smallholders practising traditional farming methods, are no longer able to keep up with the rapidly growing requirements of a demanding market. Moreover, smallholders continue to fall behind in the current economy due to their limited knowledge and access to modern agriculture technology, lack of scale, and the tendency to be exploited by larger corporations and middlemen.
In a recent interview by The Malaysian Reserve, Malaysia’s former two-time Finance Minister, Tun Dr Daim Zainuddin emphasised the need to revive our workforce in the local agriculture industry as Malaysia remains too dependent on food imports, which incurs an annual expense of RM 51 billion alone.
The effect of neglecting our local agriculture workforce hinders employment opportunities in this sector. Adding to this dilemma would be the mentality of the younger generation who often dismiss agriculture and farming as a career path, due to its ‘old fashioned’ and unglamorous nature.
All these factors highlight the reality that the future of Malaysia’s agriculture industry is certainly at risk, and will continue to worsen unless there is a major reform in the agriculture sector. Especially now in 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic forces entire nations into lockdown, the need for food security, self-sufficiency and less reliance on imports in agriculture are more apparent than ever.
A NEW MODEL OF CO-FARMING BY FEFIFO
Enter Fefifo Malaysia Sdn Bhd (“Fefifo”), who’s vision is to introduce a ‘New Beginning for Agriculture’ in Malaysia and eventually ASEAN as a whole.
With a team consisting of seasoned entrepreneurs and agriculture experts, Fefifo is a technology based Co-farming company which focuses on empowering a new generation of progressive farmers in ASEAN. Through Fefifo’s first-of-its-kind co-farming model, smallholder farmers are given the opportunity to start their own commercial farming business with zero capital expenditure, whilst enjoying access to modern ready-to-farm spaces and facilities, and guaranteed buyers for their crops.
Sowing the first-mover advantage, Fefifo aims to position themselves as the first agriculture impact-driven entity in Malaysia that addresses the common social issues faced by smallholder farmers.
Importantly, Fefifo also provides young graduates with an agriculture degree the opportunity to pursue a career path in agriculture and put the knowledge obtained from their degree into actual practice. At a recent exhibition held at Universiti Putra Malaysia, Fefifo received tremendous support from graduating students, particularly women, who were eager to register their interest with Fefifo to start their own farming business upon the completion of their studies.
In short, Fefifo seeks to give everyone the opportunity to become ‘Agropreneurs’ in their own right. Through Fefifo’s proprietary technology and established partnerships across the entire Agri-value chain, Fefifo promises to maximise operations and yield for its Agropreneurs whilst providing them with attractive returns based on its crop profit-share model.
Fefifo holds exciting potential not only in terms of its business, but for the greater benefit of the agriculture industry across ASEAN as a whole. Fefifo is currently offering the public the chance to participate in this journey and become shareholders of Fefifo through Equity Crowdfunding to raise funds for the development and implementation of its 5-acre pilot farm space. As part of Fefifo’s COVID-19 relief initiatives, Fefifo is also offering its investors a 50% discount on its valuation of 26 million.
For more details on Fefifo’s Equity Crowdfunding campaign with Ata Plus, get in touch with Fefifo’s CEO and Co-founder, Kelveen Soh at veen@fefifo.co, or follow Fefifo on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/fefifo/ for more ongoing updates.
