Meet homemaker turned farming expert Jaslin Koh

Meet Jaslin Koh

Head of Nursery
Sustenir Agriculture

Some individuals are born into the world of farming, but Jaslin’s passion blossomed during a later stage in her life. In 2015, the homemaker-turned-agriculturalist joined Sustenir with no experience under her belt, and a career in farming the furthest thought from her mind.

Despite her initial misgivings, Sustenir proved to be a fertile ground for Jaslin’s budding talent. With perseverance, an eye for perfection and a green thumb, she now manages a passionate group of growers as head of the urban farm’s nursery.

Nurturing nature

Jaslin shares about her journey in the world of urban agriculture, and how she developed an unwavering love for farming.

What challenges did you face when you first got into agriculture?

At first, I was unsure if I’d be able to catch up with all the new technology [that had developed] while I was a homemaker. I was hired as a ‘process operator’, but I knew that there would be a lot to learn.

But I’ve the sort of personality where once I’ve taken on something, I’ll just try my best. We were a new company, so we all learnt the farming process together.

What was Sustenir like when you joined in 2015?

We were a small team when we first started out, so there was a lot of collaboration and learning from scratch for everyone involved.

I was their first employee, so it felt very tight-knit… like working with a family. Everyone — including Ben and Martin (co-founders of Sustenir) — was working together on the whole process of germination, harvesting and seeding.

It seems like your job is a lot more specialised now. What does being head of nursery entail?

The nursery is just one part of the bigger picture. We take care of the young plants to a certain stage, before handing them over to the grow room. From there, they’ll care for the plants until they’re ready for the first harvest, and then another team does the post-harvest packing. We need our work to be perfect, because if anything goes wrong, we’ll affect these other two departments.

What personality traits does an urban farmer need to be successful?

You need to be passionate and motivated to always go one step further. But you also need to be patient and adaptive. For example, the seeding process is a delicate task, which requires precision, knowledge and the ability to adapt when needed.

A day in the life

“Sustenir is expanding right now, so there’s a lot of work to do,” Jaslin enthuses. “I used to do more hands-on work, but these days it’s also about management.”

Since 2018, Jaslin’s nursery team has expanded from two to fourteen staff members. While managing her growing team takes up the lion’s share of her time, she still works with her hands when fine tuning various processes, such as the germination of newer crops like lettuce and ice plant.

Food for thought

Jaslin shares her insights on the personality and skillsets necessary for farming, and the future of the industry.

Setting the bar for success

Holding herself and her team to high standards is all in a day’s work for Jaslin. Rather than being satisfied with the status quo, her current efforts revolve around researching and experimenting with boosting the germination rates of her crops.

Employing the human touch

While automation plays a big part at Sustenir — with machines being employed for repetitive processes like seeding and packing — various stages of farming still require the human touch. In Jaslin’s experience, robots are still unable to do more delicate jobs like harvesting and transplanting.

Grooming the next generation

With extensive government support for local agriculture, Jaslin hopes that more youths will consider a career in this sunrise industry. In her opinion, younger people want to have a positive impact on society, and experienced farmers are eager to share knowledge with industry newcomers.

Taste Sustenir’s signature kale and other fresh produce for yourself by placing an order on Amazon Prime and RedMart, or checking out the aisles at Cold Storage and FairPrice Finest.

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Jaslin Koh