Semenyih: Maman, known as a traditional vegetable, is now seen as a potential commercial crop as its demand is increasing among food entrepreneurs, thus opening up opportunities for farmers to cultivate it more systematically and on a large scale. Young entrepreneur Alif Dzulfarhan Mohamad Shaharudin, 36, is among those who have successfully taken advantage of this opportunity when he expanded the crop from a small garden to an agricultural operation covering about 10 acres so far and is able to produce hundreds of kilogrammes of the vegetable every week.
According to BERNAMA News Agency, Nourish Farm, led by the entrepreneur from Semenyih, Selangor, began venturing into agriculture in 2013 after Alif moved to Batu Kikir. Initially operating a family ruminant food factory, he later focused on the vegetable sector. After stabilizing the food factory, Alif started growing several crops such as bananas, eggplants, and short-term vegetables on government-leased land.
Around 2017, Alif began concentrating on maman crops after noticing a consistent demand for this traditional vegetable, particularly among local food entrepreneurs. As he explained, maman crops have a short maturity period of around 23 to 25 days before they can be harvested. This allows production to be done in stages to ensure that supplies are always sufficient for customers.
His farm is currently capable of producing about 500 kilogrammes of maman per week or at least two tonnes per month to meet customer demand, including restaurants, food traders, and wholesalers in the state, as well as in Bangi, Kajang, and Shah Alam. Alif explained that maman is sold at around RM6 to RM8 per kilogramme, depending on the number of orders, with sales revenue reaching between RM13,000 to RM15,000 per month on weekdays and increasing to about RM30,000 during high demand periods such as festive seasons.
He further shared that the development of the farm's operations was significantly boosted by a financing of RM125,000 from Agrobank in 2024, which enabled him to expand the planting area and upgrade the farm's facilities. With this financing, Alif increased the planting area from about six acres to 10 acres and purchased an electric water pump, improving the farm's irrigation system. This shift from a diesel pump to an electric pump reduced costs from around RM3,000 per month to about RM300 per month.
The financing also accelerated the farm's development, allowing for faster expansion of the planting area, which otherwise would have been a gradual process reliant on personal capital. Additionally, Alif received assistance from the state government and the agriculture department.
Apart from maman, Alif cultivates other vegetable crops, such as mustard, spinach, and water spinach, using a rotational crop system to maintain soil fertility. He remains optimistic about the potential for maman crops to become a commercially valuable crop if cultivated more systematically with technological support and appropriate financing facilities.
Alif envisions modernizing the agricultural sector, including through financing facilities like those provided by Agrobank, to help more agro entrepreneurs increase production scale and make agriculture a sustainable source of income. In the future, he plans to diversify products by producing downstream products based on maman, such as maman chicken rendang and maman meat rendang, while continuing to expand the market.