by Kit Chan (K-Farm Sdn Bhd)

The topic is wickedly put. “If Agriculture is a Science …” It is phrased in such a way that would not promote a gentle discussion but to look for a fight with anyone who has the time for it. Of course it is a science. I learned that in school, as a child in those days, where everything we learned in school was a science to us. “An apple a day keeps the doctor away”, it was the doctor (a man of science) who said that. There was another time, when we had our not-so-interested science teacher, Mr. Foong, who made us dig the school garden yard with make-shift stick diggers and filling it with foul smelling mushy cow dung (with our bare hands) and then burying in some nondescript sticks, and when it all got done, he said, “Well boys, very good. Now you watch it grow”. And that was my first agriculture experience.

Two weeks ago, my technical manager and I went to visit one of our newest melon contract farmers in Kuantan, which was a pleasant three hours drive from Kuala Lumpur. The farmer was actually a young newly married couple. I was very impressed with the young man who showed a lot of determination in wanting to prove to his new wife that he could succeed in this venture. That is a good start in any project – determination. The young wife was a college graduate, business administration, she was the better half. She had more common sense, down-to-earth and the college education did her good, but only in business entrepreneur sense. When it came down to planting melons, they both were as green as grass. But it didn’t matter. My technical manager, Mohd Nor, he is a genius. In under two hours, Mohd Nor was able to explain in sufficient details what ought and what ought not to do with melon planting and he articulately set the young couple on a path of a new adventure. The young couple listened attentively, their expressions looked more confident by the hour, they took down notes and they asked all the necessary questions about growing melons. I stood by looking learned, every now and then giving them the cautionary advice, not to take Mother Nature for granted, where in the internet they could find additional technical assistance and taught them how to draw up an adequate recording system of their farm work. I was impressed with them. I was actually more than happy.

There we were, two self-acclaimed melon experts giving advice to two novice farmers and setting them on the path of agriculture discovery for the many years to come. It brought back memories when I first started in the industry some 20 years ago when I could not tell the difference between a Durian Tree from a Rambutan Tree. I took a career gamble into the agriculture venture. I was younger and I was foolhardy. There was no Mohd Nor then who would explain the facts to me.

The people in the fraternity I consulted with would not take me serious. But my Guardian Angel has been kind to me. Today, I am standing on this side of the counter giving advice to the novice farmer. And it is because over the twenty years, I have been reading from all the agriculture books I could get my hands on, and in later years from the internet. I have also been lucky because I did meet some kind researchers from MARDI who did take me serious, and these people have become some of my dearest friends and associates today. My other technical help-mates came from other corners of the world. I seek and made their acquaintances, I took note of their advice, I tried their planting suggestions in the farm and I read their technical works.

I understood partly, what I didn’t I asked them further. This has been my learning curve. And I am convinced that the 20 years of experiences in the industry have taught me more relevant things than what Harvard Graduate School could teach me.

If agriculture is NOT a science, then it must be a gamble. In this part of the world today, we still have people who have planted 200 hectares of melon and only after that they pray that the melon price would not collapse, or that the rain would not cause a disaster to the crop or a dozen other things that could render their crop failure. Judging from the probabilities of Chance, if growing food is not a science, the farmer will never have a chance of success. Considering this and the efforts put into the crop production and the monies spent – it is a gamble with a loaded dice against the farmer, a prudent investor would rather put his money somewhere else. The bankers know this as well. A film producer will more likely get his bank loan approved than a farmer.

Coming back to the topic at hand, “If Agriculture is Science …” If it is a science, agriculture has to be taught at school. School children should start to differentiate between palms and vines, beetles and mites; they have to know how pesticides work and how to apply them correctly without poisoning the fish or the baby. From a young age they will get to learn to appreciate the elements of the ecosystem. They will understand how each organism needed to rely on another, how the biosphere is affected by our everyday activities, how to protect the organisms that promote better crop production. They will appreciate Earth better and perhaps help make this world a better place.

If an insecticide is a poison, how can we allow someone who cannot read or write nor understand the chemistry handle the product? But the farmer, in this part of the world, he can. Who is to teach the uninformed farmer how to select the insecticides, how much to use, when to use and how often to use? For that farmer, he only wants to eradicate the damn insect that cause him so much losses, eradicate all the insects if he could, only to ensure that his crop stay whole without a blemish. The chemical is a product of science, but that does not make the uninformed farmer a man of science when he uses the product on his crop. Even the lawyer-turn-farmer will have to learn the sciences of agriculture. The Laws of Tort cannot apply justice to Colletotrichum infecting the Mango fruit. The Law of Survival of the Fittest applies instead.

The lawyer also has to learn the chemistry of the pesticides and the biology of the fungal world in order to prevent an infection. There is no moral judgment in the natural ecosystem. Only with better knowledge and better understanding how the ecosystem works that we are able to minimize the destructive consequences of crop production. Knowledge of agriculture science is that tool.

We are not born carpenters. No doubt, I can knock three pieces of wood together and make a chair, but that does not qualify me a carpenter. I have to be trained in a technical college to learn to build strong and comfortable chairs. Or else I have to spend a couple of years’ apprenticeship with a Chair Master to learn the finer tricks of making a good chair. Equally, just sticking a couple of twigs in the ground and getting them to sprout shoot does not qualify me a farmer. Everyone can stand by the mangosteen tree and watch the fruit grow, but to ensure it does not become a miniaturized fruit requires a minimum of knowledge in fruit cultivation. Hence, the farmer needs to understand the sciences of plant biology, the lifecycles of pests and diseases, and the basic chemistry of fertilizer application, in order to have the confidence, the ability to oppose and counteract the destructive consequences of the Law of Survival of the Fittest and hope to produce a succulent and safe fruit everyone can enjoy.

Perhaps this is asking too much from the poor farmer? He is old and he is poor, but that is not his fault, is it? And is it his fault that he cannot read and write and cannot understand all this rocket sciences of growing food? When has the business of growing food become a subject of qualification? Yes, this is most regrettable. But meanwhile, more babies keep turning blue.

So, if Agriculture is a Science, there is much that has to be done, and perhaps we could start by teaching the young children the simple and basic sciences of growing food – and it is not just about poking a stick into the ground and watching it grow. We should teach the children the nutritional value in food production. We should prepare them to decide how they would want their food to be produced. For the older farmer who is beyond schooling capacity, we as agriculture extension officers, have the responsibility to teach them the correct techniques of crop production. It is often true that the less the old farmer knows, the more stubborn they are. But be prepared to be surprised because every now and then the old farmer might teach us one or two tricks of crop cultivation that will still baffle the scientist.

This is what I love best about this industry.