Agro-Delight

There are numerous flower, vegetable and strawberry farms accessible to visitors in Cameron Highlands. Be sure to wear comfortable walking shoes, as there is a good amount of walking up and down steep steps and terraced footpaths.

Visitors will learn about different vegetable farming methods practised in the highlands – aeroponic, hydroponic, conventional and organic. Hydroponic is a modern method and often the costliest, but vegetables are easily grown using water instead of soil.

Nutrients are fed to the plants via a circulated water system, giving them adequate oxygen. Protected from direct sunlight, the greens are grown on neat rows of raised elongated planters and protected from pests with strategically placed “fly paper” that lure insects to its adhesive surface. The most popular vegetable grown using this method are the salad types, such as red and green coral lettuces, butterhead and Romaine. According to our guide, organic vegetables are grown with chemical-free fertilisers and some form of crop rotation.
Vegetables require 3½ months to grow using traditional farming method, so most conventional farms today opt for intensive “open terrace” cultivation, which shortens the growth period to just 45 days. Organic methods, though, take slightly longer, yielding a proper harvest only after 65-70 days. The organic vegetables produced here are mainly broccoli, mini bok choy, Japanese spinach, Chinese cabbage, leeks, iceberg lettuce and peas.

After the enlightening Agro-Delights Tour, we appreciated the fresh, crisp greens served for our steamboat dinner even more. Instead of seeing them as just an essential component of our diet, we saw the vegetables as the fruits of many diligent farmers’ labour in Cameron Highlands.