A few months ago for the very first time I was on the Asian continent. It was a very long flight and that’s the only part of the trip I didn’t enjoy. Oh yeah I couldn’t visit the Malaysia Agro Exposition Park Serdang (MAEPS) which was supposed to be the highlight of my trip. There was a big exhibition coming up, so they had to close down to upgrade their facilities. You can’t imagine my disappointment, tried to haggle with the lady on the phone to just see what it looks like and not take a full tour but she said that there were construction workers everywhere and that her manager will have none of it. Nevertheless I settled for other parks, Lord knows I didn’t come all that way for nothing.

So basically  Agritourism describes the act of visiting a working farm or any agricultural, horticultural or agribusiness operation to enjoy, be educated or be involved in activities. Examples of agritourism are…

• farm tours for families and school children,
• day camps,
• hands-on chores,
• self-harvesting of produce,
• hay or sleigh rides and
• overnight stays in a bed and breakfast.

Some people become involved in agritourism as a way of supplementing their income. Others desire an opportunity to educate the public and introduce people to farming.

I visited the Taman Warisan Pertanian Putrajaya. It’s not as big as MAEPS but it was big enough. Below are pictures from the tour

So this is the crew, we rented a buggy and the driver was our tour guide. He knew his stuff. He gave us a brief history about the agriculture sector in Malaysia. It turns out they have the same challeneges with youth and agriculture as we do in Africa. Basically the youths are not interested but the difference between Africa and Malaysia is that the government is taking steps to address this issue. TheTaman Warisan Pertanian Putrajaya was not just set up for tourist but for Malays as well especially the youth to educate them about the agriculture landscape, history and possibilities in Malaysia.

The name of the fruit in the picture is Durain. The name durian comes from the Malay word duri which means thorn. It’s like national fruit of some sort. It’s wrapped in a nylon to prevent pests. It’s a pretty huge fruit. The picture at the far right shows what the flesh looks like. Oh yeah it apparently stinks!Then there is the Malaysian berry. As long as it’s red, it’s super sweet :-). If it’s not it’s super sour 🙁within the park they grow rice in small plots. Rice doesn’t always have to be grown in swampy areas.

For the first time ever I saw how they tap rubber….rubber tappers…haha. It was actually quite interesting to see. I almost attempted doing it myself but that never happened….

More rubber tapping

The last picture on the right is an attempt to grow peppers that got infested by pests.

That’s our tour guide showing us what the rubber looks like after being processed and me in front of the thingy (I forget the name) that dries the rubber I think…I should have written this post earlier.

Well its a wrap…unripe coconut water is super healthy…

Africa needs to invest in building some of these parks in various African cities. In my humble opinion it will be a good way of not just creating jobs but also getting the youths more interested in the agric space. As always thanks for stopping by :-).