KUALA LUMPUR: A Malaysian content creator who planted padi and harvested the rice at home went viral recently.
"The idea to plant padi at home began when I stopped all my business activities in January this year," said Siti Aai Shah in the 4-minute 34-second video on Facebook.
She decided to do something different from the usual content creation idea. She decided to try planting padi as it would make interesting content and educate others as well.
She said she faced a few challenges at the early stage of the process as she wasn't from an agricultural background and there were many things that she needed to study about the crop.
"There were also some who mocked me during this journey, saying it was a waste of time and I could just buy my rice at grocery stores.
"But, I aimed to experiment and see if we can grow padi at home in a pot," she added.
She bought the seeds from an online e-commerce platform and planted them in hole-less pots.
Aai Shah said in about 70 days, the plants bore fruit, and after another 20 days, the stalks began to bow down due to their weight.
"The padi was ready to be cut and harvested by the 110th day," she said.
She got about 3.4kg of rice from her garden.
She said she did not have any expectations on how many kilogrammes of rice she wanted to obtain from the experiment. Rather, she was happy to see it worked well.
Aai Shah said, knowing how the rice was produced (using organic methods) gives her a sense of confidence.
She also said people who are interested in planting and agriculture should pursue it without any hesitation.
"My advice to people who want to pursue planting and agriculture is to proceed because if we keep listening to what people are saying, we will never be able to achieve what we want," she said.
She said planting padi on a pot is not as difficult as it seems, but there is a difference between padi that was planted on a field and a pot.
"There are differences on how to care for and nurture padi that are planted on a field and a pot at home," she said.
A social media user, Deni Sha asked for the details of the fertilisers and pesticides used by the influencer.
"Can you tell what fertiliser and pesticides you used?" she commented.
Meanwhile, some users praised her efforts and the knowledge she shared.
"Very proud of Aisha's passion. Insya Allah. Allah will always bless all of Aisha's effort," wrote Zuyyin Malaiqa.
" The way you think really gives useful knowledge. It's true that when we want to start something we don't need to worry about what people say. The trial you made is so proud. May you continue to prosper," commented Soyani Hassan.