But he gave it all up to be a farmer.

The 37-year-old always had an interest in farming but never considered doing it for a living – until he chanced upon a long bean farm near his house in Melaka.

Then, Yogeswaran was on a six-month break before taking up a new job in China. He struck up a conversation with the farmer, a Bangladeshi national who was looking to sell the two-acre farm because he wanted to return to his home country.

In the spur of the moment, Yogeswaran decided to take over the farm, and within weeks, had already recooped more than the amount he spent to buy the farm from the income of his first harvest.

Seeing the bright prospects in farming, he decided against taking up the job in China and turned into a full-time farmer.

“Now I have around 25 acres of land and I plant a variety of crops such as chilli, cucumber, rockmelon, pak choi, spinach and more,” he said, adding that modern-day farming is different from the old days when everything had to be done manually.

“Farming has gone high-tech. We now have an automated fertigation system that helps control the watering and use of fertilisers for our plants. This is done all from home with our mobile phones,” he said.

He said he has no regrets about giving up his career as a chef as farming has been the most rewarding thing that has happened to him.

Great prospects for youths

The Federal Agricultural Marketing Authority (Fama) is hoping more youths will follow in Yogeswaran’s footsteps and join the agriculture sector.

Fama’s deputy director of operations Abdul Rashid Bahri said this was not only important for the country’s food security but would also reduce dependence on imports.

He said the agriculture and food industries ministry has created a programme known as “Young Agropreneurs”, aimed at attracting more youths to venture into agriculture.

“In this programme, the ministry will help young farmers by providing them with a RM20,000 grant, a loan up to RM200,000 at 2% interest for those eligible, and more to help kickstart their business.

“Fama will also offer direct marketing services to those involved in the Fama marketing contract programme. Through this service, we will provide logistic facilities such as transportation and storage as well as marketing equipment to help boost the sales of their products,” he said.

He hoped this would encourage the younger generation to be more involved in agriculture to achieve the goal of food security in the country.