WHY WE STARTED CityFarm?
The UN (United Nation) predicts, world’s population will grow 9.6B by 2050, 70% of them will live in the cities and 70% more food will be required to feed them. Yet, 80% of cultivated land is already in use. Moreover, extreme weather patterns & devastated crops create higher food prices, and consumers become more conscious on how their foods are produced now.
“What should we do now?”
“What if we bring the farm to the city?”
Advancement in urban farming technologies gave us the opportunities to resolve this issue by bringing farm into cities with the aim to create a self-sustaining food supply within the city.
Henceforward, CityFarm Malaysia is founded with the objective of inspiring more city farmers with the ability to grow locally from anywhere for a more sustainable future of food production. It is co-founded by 4 university mates, Johanson Chew, Jayden Koay, Low Cheng Yang & Looi Choon Beng. It launched in 2016 with an indoor controlled environment vertical show farm (450sqf) that is capable of producing 2000 heads of lettuce every month.
There are 3 main pillars that support CityFarm Malaysia to realise the mission mentioned above.
First >> Food. The primary driver of CityFarm Malaysia to venture into indoor farming is its ability to satisfy the rapid growth in consumer demand for affordable, high-quality, locally produce crop in any climate. Farming within the city also able to reduce carbon food print where transportation can be optimized and making “farm-to-table” possible. Cityfarm Malaysia is currently supplying lettuce to neighbor cafés around Serdang area.
Second >> Farm. Progression of Hydroponics technology makes soilless farming possible within the urban household and this is the key to address food supply issue where everyone is a city farmer and able to be part of the food supply process. However, the awareness of urban farming is relatively low compared to countries like Taiwan, Japan, Europe and the US. Hence, CityFarm Malaysia wishes to play a part in the movement by creating simple & affordable farming system in cities, e.g. Balcony set (20 plants capacity) for a small family and consultation to build indoor/outdoor farm.
Third >> Family. CityFarm Malaysia’s next focus is mainly on education where we want to train the next generation on the importance of farming and how you can play a part to make the world a better place by growing food that is healthy, clean and fresh.
Lastly, CityFarm Malaysia is open for public visit and it serves as a one-stop-center to kick start your farming journey.
