Mrs. Mued
- From Kampung Semadang
- A 66-year-old mother with 8 children
- Owns 5.5 acres of cassava, 2.5 acres of fruit and half an acre of vegetables
Mrs. Mued is a 66-year-old mother with 8 children from Kampung Semadang, a small town 40 kilometers away from Jalan Puncak Borneo. She owns 5.5 acres of cassava, 2.5 acres of fruit and half an acre of vegetables. From a young age, Mrs. Mudd began farming. Due to lack of education funds and responsibility for caring for her sick mother, she did not have the opportunity to receive a proper education. Despite this, Mrs. Mued discovered her passion for farming after she set foot in this field.
Her inspiring story
Before Mrs. Mued started the farming business, she was engaged in catering services, which was her only source of income. One day, her landlord, out of jealousy after seeing her do so well, prevented her from doing business for a few days. Mrs Mued then questioned herself asking “how am i going to pay the rent and my daily expenses?” She decided to resign, make a life-changing decision, and unconditionally commit to farming.
The first cassava farm is on the hills of Bukit Bawang, a 10 minutes’ drive away from Kampung Semadang. Before Mrs. Mued started planting cassava, the former fields were rice fields. Because of ageing, she could not handle as much workload as she did during her youth, and so she started growing cassava instead of rice as it was easier. Apart from growing cassava, Mrs Mued also grows fruits of different varieties such as durian Nisha, mangosteen, banana, and lemon.
More fruit farms
Mrs Mued’s second fruit farm is located at the lower reaches of Sungai Semadang. In order to reach the farm, visitors would need to walk up the stone paved path. Upon arrival,one would find many attractive crops scattered around the farm, including but not limited to mangosteen, Langsat, lemon, sugar cane, rambutan and durian. Mrs Mued had participated in a banana planting project which was implemented by the local government a few years back. Upon finishing the project, she allocated a large area of her field to growing the bananas. Meanwhile, the third vegetable farm is located along the main road in Kampung Semadang and mainly grows baby corn.
Challenges and difficulties
Although Mrs. Mued succeeded in running all three farms by herself, there are times when challenges and difficulties disturb her workload. The lack of security on her farm caused the thieves to steal her fish. In addition, nature also brings about the problem that after the butterfly lays its eggs in the eggs and hatching holes, the caterpillars will start to chop the leaves and destroy the crops while wild boars would also eat the crops because the farms are all located in the jungle which are prone to wild animals.
Despite all the challenges that Mrs Mued had faced, she is a very strong minded person with a never-say-die attitude. As to how she handled the challenges she faced, she had builded a wall on her farm to fend off the theft happening in her farm to prevent them from stealing more fish from the pond. Meanwhile, in order to make sure the corps are not destroyed, Mrs Mued would use poison to eliminate the worms previously but, recently she came up with a new idea to eliminate the worm which is using traditional herbs. Mrs Mued also attributed her success to religion, which makes a big part of her life, providing comfort and direction through her tough time.
Help Mrs. Mued
Little By Little, Little Becomes A lot
“Cultivators of the earth are the most valuable citizens. They are the most vigorous, the most independent, the most virtuous, and they are tied to their country and wedded to its liberty and interests by the most lasting bonds.” ― Thomas Jefferson. We look forward to collaborating and assisting Mrs. Mued in sustainable farming and marketing more of her products and attracting more potential customers for her product through Farmily. Stay tuned for more updates on her journey towards sustainability!
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