The COVID-19 pandemic has threatened food security within the Orang Asli community. Part of Epic?s relief and recovery efforts is to provide a means of obtaining food security via poultry farms. However, commercial poultry feed contributes significantly to the operational cost of these farms making it difficult to sustain economically. In addition to that, poultry manure incurs a large environmental impact to soil and water if not disposed properly.
The proposed approach takes into account the food production system of the poultry farm by introducing a closed-loop agriculture system. This system is one where nutrients and organic matter are recycled back into the soil that grew it. It forms part of an agricultural practice that preserves the nutrients and carbon levels within the soil and allows farming to be carried out on a sustainable basis.
We aim to establish a system that consists of alternative feed farms and manure compost systems to support the operations of existing poultry farms within the Hulu Selangor district of Selangor. The alternative feed farms will look to offset the cost of poultry farming and compost fertiliser initiative will look at curbing the environmental impact of the farms. These initiatives will be community led and implemented with support from Epic and technical experts.
The fund will be used to fund 2 prototype farms and 1 prototype compost fertiliser systems, including knowledge and skills transfer, set up, consultation and implementation of the initiatives. With the 2 initiatives, we hope to establish a network within the community in order to enhance the production chain of existing poultry farms, making it a more sustainable method of achieving food security for the Orang Asli community.