Professor Dr Leong Choon Heng is not your typical academic — he’s someone who brings ideas out of the classroom and into the soil. By training, Dr Leong is a sociologist and sustainability expert who has spent decades working across universities, government think-tanks and community programmes to understand how people, policy and the environment can thrive together. He holds a PhD in Sociology from Harvard University, and today serves as Deputy Director of the Jeffrey Sachs Center on Sustainable Development at Sunway University, where his work focuses on sustainable development, community participation and environmental stewardship.

But it’s on his farm in Batu Arang that Dr Leong’s beliefs take root in the most tangible way. Since 2008, he has been growing food organically on 10 acres of land, applying the same sustainability principles he teaches — nurturing soil health, promoting biodiversity and growing a wide variety of fruits and vegetables without synthetic chemicals. This farm isn’t just a production site; it’s his living laboratory for regenerative agriculture, demonstrating how a scientific mindset and deep respect for nature can produce healthy food and restore landscapes over time.

By bridging academic insight with hands-on practice, Dr Leong brings a rare perspective to Sihat Tani Farm — one that helps the land, feeds the community, and shows that meaningful sustainability can be learned in the lecture hall and lived on the farm.