Have you noticed the rows of tall teak trees standing majestically along the North-South Expressway?
They actually stem from the pioneering work of Dr Billy Tang Chee Seng, an agriculturist, who more than 30 years ago was tasked with planting these valuable timber species that also enhanced the aesthetics along the highway.
These days, Dr Billy, 56, is also standing tall because of community-wide scientific achievements that have touched the hearts of many.
It has been a remarkable turnaround for someone who was in the depths of despair at one time, even having lost the will to live after losing the use of his legs following a motor accident in 2015.
But the doctors treating him at a rehab centre in Melaka convinced him to use whatever he had left, especially his brains, to make a difference in life. Despite being a paraplegic, he has chosen to dedicate his "new life" to helping others over the last seven years.
Dr Billy started his PwD (People with Disabilities) Smart Farmability Centre in Subang Jaya as a social enterprise that evolved from a simple drawing at the rehab centre. He decided to use his knowledge of regenerative agriculture to benefit thousands of PwD and the poor via his proprietary aquaponics and soil technology.
"With God's grace and mercy, the simple picture turned into reality," recalled the bespectacled wheelchair-bound biotechnologist.
His groundbreaking innovation is a simple but dynamic biodegradable plastic container measuring 56cm x 38cm x 31cm, which he has transformed into an organic vegetable terrarium.
Beneficiaries of these "hope boxes", which are a world's first, can harvest up to 2kg of watercress and Brazilian spinach monthly from one terrarium alone despite not being farming experts themselves. They just need to water the greens twice a week.
The longest regenerating terrarium has been regrowing fresh and nutritious vegetables for the past 33 months and counting. Almost 4,000 of "My Carbon Farm" terrariums have been distributed to the needy.
Through his "Scaling Up Nutrition" (SUN) Movement, Dr Billy wants to expand this into a global activity to end malnutrition.
For starters, he wants to represent an estimated 4.8 million people with disabilities in Malaysia to champion his centre's noble cause to feed the planet.
His world's first regenerative organic "soil-ution aquaponics satellite farm" from the merger of soil and soil-less farming is a symbiotic recirculating system that grows vegetables and rears red tilapia.
Given that fish is a rich protein source that the poor can ill afford, Dr Billy wants to reduce this gap by using aquaponics, a system where the waste produced by the farmed fish supplies nutrients to plants, which, in turn, purifies the water, thus eliminating the need for hormones and antibiotics.
From the word "go", he has already much to show for from his numerous awards and accolades, both locally and internationally.
In terms of social and business impact, his sterling efforts have produced 4,320kg of vegetables from terrariums, 1,188kg of vegetables from satellite farms and 133kg of red tilapia between March 2020 and June this year.
Working with Cherrie Atilano, the United Nations nutrition ambassador for the SUN Movement and founding farmer and president of AGREA (for Mother Earth in Latin) the Philippines, Dr Billy has been encouraging individuals and corporations to sponsor regenerative farming kits to benefit people with low food budgets so that they can help sustain the poor, save the planet and even help them make a profit.
Through his agricultural transformation plans, Dr Billy believes he can reduce hunger-induced crimes and provide hunger-relief to the needy with nutritious food to strengthen their bodies' natural defences as well.
He also wants to raise awareness that the availability of nutritious food impacts positively on the public healthcare system and that it's a basic human right, not a luxury for the rich.
He regards soil health as the only answer to restore Earth's biodiversity and believes that agriculture is no longer about farming, but feeding for health.
By teaming up with the Central Luzon State University and Vera Bella Enterprises of the Philippines to produce tilapia ice cream and snacks, he's on track to boosting people's protein intake through these popular food items by eliminating the fishy flavour and aftertaste.
His fervour and runaway success have won him another recognition from the United Kingdom-based World Humanitarian Drive organisation for Global Business Excellence: he'll be at the British Houses of Parliament on Sept 11 to receive the award as part of Queen Elizabeth II's Platinum Jubilee celebrations.
Dr Billy can stand tall again and show that being physically limited doesn't mean being limited in life as he has emerged as a caring hero serving and saving the needy.
The writer is a former Bernama chief executive officer and editor-in-chief
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect those of the New Straits Times
