Wednesday, November 19, 2008

“Bumi Hijau” program as one of the best ways to lower family expenses in response to the rising fuel and goods prices

I’m indeed honoured to be given this opportunity to talk to you all about “Bumi Hijau” program as one of the best ways to lower family expenses in response to the rising fuel and goods prices.

As the global oil price rise, the daily food basket and other essential items have gone up. In this situation, there are several ways to lower the family expenses such as by spending on what is really necessary and avoiding going outside using vehicle unless it is a must. Another best way to lower family expenses in response to the rising fuel and goods prices is to cultivate our own food by growing edible plants and rearing livestocks. This is what is also known as Bumi Hijau program.

Ladies and Gentlemen: The “Bumi Hijau” program was launched at National Level by Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, Prime Minister of Malaysia, on 29th June 2008. The Bumi Hijau Program is among the steps taken to encourage urban and rural folk plant vegetables and other food items to enhance the level of household sustenance. It consists of three main components, that is, agriculture, rearing livestock and aquaculture. The main purpose of this program is to encourage the people to grow edible plants and rear livestock for their own consumption. However, for the purpose of my presentation today, I would like to highlight why Bumi Hijau Program is considered as one of the best ways to lower family expenses.

Firstly, by growing our own food, we can lower our expenses because we don’t have to buy vegetables, herbs and fruits anymore. We can grow chillies, torch ginger, ladies finger, mustard, lemon grass, spinach, limes, mangoes and others easily in pots, polybags and recycled container. This is also known as Kitchen Garden concept where we produce edible plants for our own consumption. Therefore, it will not be a big problem if we are living in flats or any housing area with limited compounds.

Secondly, since we can get these vegetables, herbs and fuits just within our compound, no more trips to the market is necessary and therefore we can save our petrol money. And again it is proven that the Bumi Hijau program is one of the best ways to lower family expenses.

Thirdly, those vegetables, herbs and fruits that we grow are fresher than those in any markets are as we are the one that control the used of pesticide. In addition, of course, they are free of melamine. This fresh and healthy food will give you a healthy body. Therefore there is no way that you will get food poisoning. So this will save you a lot on medical cost. Again you may lower your family expenses.

Fourthly, by involving in Bumi Hijau program, we also can save our money since we don’t have to buy flowers or any artificial plants to beautify our surrounding since vegetables, herbs and fruit plants will make the surrounding beautiful.

Fifthly, ladies and Gentlemen, besides agriculture, we can rear livestock like chickens, ducks and quails for their meat and eggs. We also can rear fish like keli and tilapia in polyethelene tanks. In addition to our veggie and fruits, we now have a balanced and nutritious meal within our reach. Therefore, we don’t have to take any food supplement to supplement our diets. So again this will save us money.

By rearing livestock, we can also lower our family expenses since we can get organic fertilizer for free for our vegetables and plants and this will save us money.

Lastly, but not least, if we produce more from our need of consumption, we can sell our products to others e.g. to our neighbours so that it will give us extra income. We also can preserve our product to expand their lifetime. So, beside selling fresh products we also can sell delicious and tasty pickle fruits, vegetables and salty eggs.

To conclude, by involving in “Bumi Hijau” program, we are not only can save our money but increase our income too. I hope everybody will actively start planting more vegetables around their homes and adopt this as healthy lifestyle which as a result will lower the household expenses So, don’t waste any time. Let start our own garden now. Thank you.

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