Noble Gateway’s farm is the only vegetable farm in the agriculture village of Hulu Langat which does not use pesticides and chemical fertilizers. Amid the deteriorating soil quality, their neighbors started to adopt the same methods.

Quite miraculously, the once barren land on Noble Gateway has eventually succeeded in growing passion fruits, dragon fruits, and the rare red corn.
Plight of small farms
Situated in the southeastern corner of Selangor lies Hulu Langat, a district peppered with small farms and villages along the river and lakes. The homely suburb made waves in the news a year ago due to a devastating flood believed to be caused by deforestation and water surge.
Local folks are still haunted by the incident.
Meanwhile, a group of small farmers here now face the threat of deteriorating soil quality of their farmlands; on top of being an aging community.
During a casual conversation we had with the owners of a vegetable farm located upstream of Sungai Makau, they reported that the number of vegetable variants they could produce on their soil has reduced from 10 types to just 3, after farming from the same land for the past decade.
This story is not new to the locals, and many farmers here share the same plight. Although the cause is not a mystery to this group, the term “soil degradation” is a far-fetched concept to the small farmers who rely on their eroded land as the only source of income, and they cannot afford to take the time to discover alternative methods other than to continue relying on age-old conventional farming methods.
The Seed That Was Planted 4 Years Ago
Less than a year before the COVID-19 pandemic, a group of environmentally-aware entrepreneurs with a vision to establish an eco-village pulled together their resources to secure a 3-acre farmland along Sungai Makau. They called this place the Noble Gateway, and it is one of the many new organizations birthed in Malaysia that strives to build a sustainable community. In fact, Noble Gateway has openly declared to their neighbors that they want to convert the entire village into an eco-village.
“A naive dream, backed with nothing but optimism” – was what the neighbors had thought.
It wasn’t long before the entrepreneurs from Noble Gateway understood what their friendly farmer neighbors meant.
“As soon as we became friends with the farmers, they were quick to share their honest opinions with us,” said Joanne Chew, co-founder of Noble Gateway.
“The soil on our land is bad, we lack experience, and we ‘rich people’ are better off just turning our place into a merry little retirement home.”
Their land was barren, composed almost entirely of clay soil that hardens and cracks under hot sun, expands and chokes plant roots during rainy days, and has a pH of 3.5. The first few years became an uphill battle, as the poor soil caused their crops to become vulnerable to the pests that were repelled by neighboring farms.
“It was truly a test of our faith,” said Joanne, “even though we understand that realistically soil rejuvenation takes time, patience, manpower, and a lot of scientific understanding of soil biology.”
As Above, So Below
Quite miraculously, the once barren land on Noble Gateway has eventually succeeded in growing passion fruits, dragon fruits, the rare red corn with a Brix level of 18 (normally at 12 to 15), and 100 kg of local vegetables per cycle with minimal pest issues and without synthetic fertilizers and pesticides.
Rooting their faith in the science of biodynamics, permaculture, and regenerative agriculture practices, the entrepreneurs can finally see the fruit of their labor.
“What you can see here is far from an overnight success,” explains Johnny Liew, co-founder of Noble Gateway. “On top of 2 years of trial-and-error collaborating with multiple parties, we have also been continuously composting and adding organic matter into the clay soil.”
Armed with a vast network of volunteers and science researchers from different backgrounds, the entrepreneurs have managed to rejuvenate the soil and propagate many species of herbs and commercial vegetables. The biodiversity that has returned above and below the earth—vines, trees, shrubs, shrooms, vertebrates, and invertebrates—collectively strengthened plant health, making them resistant to pest attacks while producing promising yields.
“As of now, we are the only vegetable farm in the agriculture village of Hulu Langat farming vegetables without pesticides and chemical fertilizers,” continues Johnny. “And we want to bust the myth around here (Sungai Makau) that it is impossible to grow crops without pesticides.”
Plight of Small Farms
Situated in the southeastern corner of Selangor lies Hulu Langat, a district peppered with small farms and villages along the river and lakes. The homely suburb made waves in the news a year ago due to a devastating flood believed to be caused by deforestation and water surge.
Local folks are still haunted by the incident.
Meanwhile, a group of small farmers here now face the threat of deteriorating soil quality of their farmlands, on top of being an aging community.
During a casual conversation we had with the owners of a vegetable farm located upstream of Sungai Makau, they reported that the number of vegetable variants they could produce on their soil has reduced from 10 types to just 3, after farming from the same land for the past decade.
This story is not new to the locals, and many farmers here share the same plight. Although the cause is not a mystery to this group, the term “soil degradation” is a far-fetched concept to the small farmers who rely on their eroded land as the only source of income, and they cannot afford to take the time to discover alternative methods other than to continue relying on age-old conventional farming methods.
Hope for the Land’s Revival
As a result of Noble Gateway’s continuous preaching about “saving the soil,” some of the neighbors have stopped spraying weedkillers and switched to tree leaves instead. One other neighboring farm even volunteered to let Noble Gateway condition the soil around a few fruit trees like mangosteen and durian. Neighbors have turned from being skeptical to being curious, and the Hulu Langat village headmen and board members personally came to endorse the project.
More importantly, at least 20 farmers across Klang Valley have made phone calls to Noble Gateway with the intention to visit and learn about their methodologies right after the news was published in a local Chinese newspaper, featuring their collaboration with the Rotary Club of Bukit Bintang on an agriculture education project supported by Rotary International’s global grant amounting to RM180,000.
"Even so, we still have encounters with resellers who refused to believe that our crops are farmed without chemicals because they look too nice," Joanne sighs. "But as disheartening as it is, these are the very reasons we have to start raising awareness and educating the community about sustainable farming."
With the understanding that they are in it for the long haul, the entrepreneurs of Noble Gateway collectively agree that to expect a total reformation in a short time is unrealistic and they are currently still in the early stages of turning Hulu Langat into an eco-village.
"However, we believe we have all the right ingredients in place to gain momentum and make a sustainable change to the community," Johnny expresses his hope.
Other than the Rotary Club of Bukit Bintang, big names like Best Environmental Technologies (M) Sdn Bhd, MASMARDI, and The Society PSP Malaysia are also directly involved in the community project "Field of Hope" - Through Agriculture Education. APR
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