Hi, this is Clementine. Hi, it's Hugo. We are two French students in agriculture sciences.
We came to Malaysia to meet farmers and other people involved in sustainable agriculture development. Malaysia is a country with natural advantages such as primary forests, mountains, coral reefs that contribute to a rich biodiversity. The climate in Malaysia is one of the few countries where temperate vegetables such as spinach, cabbage, lettuce can grow, as well as rice and tropical fruits such as banana or pineapple.
Malaysia went through a green revolution in the late 80s. period where an intensive agricultural system was introduced with mechanizations and large inputs. The food availability therefore increased but this has led to issues such as water and soil pollution, biodiversity loss and also also stagnation in crop yields. The country has also experienced a rapid economic development over the last 25 years. As it remains a developing country, the focus remains more on high agricultural productivity rather than in sustainable practices.
Some farmers, however, are now turning to chemical-free and sustainable alternative, which we wanted to explore through this documentary. Let's share our experience with you. We farm, we get life-forms. SRI. We are the best in the world!
Now let's go to Cayman Islands, the first step of our trip, a place mainly known for for tea and strawberry plantations. It's also a hub for vegetables in Malaysia. In this area, 3,800 farmers grow vegetables over 3,600 hectares of land.
Farms are actually quite small. Most of the farmers use chemicals and do monocroping to grow their vegetables. Among the 3,800 farmers, only 18 are certified myorganic, a Malaysian organic certification. They use alternative practices instead of using chemicals.
We decided to meet some of these farmers. Mr. Lee is a third generation farmer in his family. When he started to manage the farm, he switched to organic farming. He decided with seven other farmers to create a group of organic farmers in Cameron Island. We are around 1400 meter from the sea level.
Actually mostly the veggies we can grow is highland veggies. For example broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, Chinese cabbage and I think around 20 types of leafy veggies. Mr Lee doesn't use any chemicals. How can he manage the insect population?
Many ways you can do. Crop rotation and watering, and use pheromone in the crop to reduce the population of the insect. So we have 13 farms.
We also do crop rotation with each other farm. because the insect won't attack your veggies for long term. We need to eat the crop because certain insects they love some crop, some insects they didn't like. And so we have to know which one he didn't like, we plant inside.
in between there. One more thing, we also use a yellow sticker and sex pheromone to attract some insects so we can monitor their population and we also can use water to reduce their population because some insects when they are very active at evening so when you put water they don't like the environment. so that you can reduce their population when the environment is not suitable for them. To improve his soil quality, Mr Lee makes his own compost. Compost we use the farm waste, for example grasses and the the veggies what we do need are leaf and the stem and the root.
And we use one machine to cut it into small pieces and make sure it can easily decompose. So what we add inside the compost is rice bran, molasses and enzymes. Enzymes are fangy bacteria. And then we make sure the compost is enough to contain water. You must control the moisture.
very well. It's around 60 percent and you must turn it weekly, every week. And why we need to turn it because the oxygen is going in and inside the Compost won't overheat.
So we need four months to decompose everything. Mr Lee and the seven other farmers want local people to be convinced of the quality of their products. We have a steamboat restaurant. Because we find out some...
Some consumers, they didn't believe in organic, but they want to try. After they try our veggies in our restaurant, they are starting to eat organic vegetables. Yes, it's quite, how to say, efficient. After 20 years, Mr. Lee is now very satisfied of his practices.
More and more people are getting real life. The food is very, the safety food is very important for our healthy. And one more thing is if we have no very nice environment, even we have a lot of money, we also cannot survive. So this is the thing I feel hopeful for our future.
In Cameron Islands, Mr. Chen decided to grow his vegetables in biodynamic agriculture. In 2010, we visited a biodynamic farm in Australia, near Inverleith, Darren Hawkins Farm. And that's the first time that we saw an eco farm, that natural growing farm that grows so well, the plants so healthy. Not much weed problem, no insects and fungus problem. So and we can see that the production is a lot.
The plant is very healthy. So then we decided we should follow this way. Maybe you're wondering what is biodynamic. It is an agriculture very similar to organic farming. In biodynamic, the priority is the soil fertility.
They only use nine preparations, called 500 to 508, based on livestock manures and medicinal plants. The preparation 500, that is a soil spray, it can follow the roots to go down deep into the soil, so it structures the soil and makes the plant roots healthy under the soil. If because of the climate imbalance and this plant got insects or the fungus problem, we can spray on the preparation 501. That is to help the plant to get more sunlight, to do much more photosynthesis, so they can become healthy even they are lacking of sunlight. So this is a full bottle of 501. It is about 150 gram. So it can be used for 150 acres, one gram only for one acre and it works although the use is very minimum.
The other preparations from 502 to 508 are used to make compost. BiodeNami also considers there is a lunar cycle. ...an astrological influence on soil and plant development.
It follows the planting calendar. There was a calendar suggested by the Rural Center for planting calendar. So we follow the calendar for certain variety of vegetables like carrots, they are roots, so we follow where they are the root day, the moon behind having the jodhya, they are enforcing the root growth. So let's say tomato or sweet corn. we follow the fruit day when that is a period that the cosmic were influenced on the seed germination so that they were carried on with more fruit.
Plus these practices Mr. Chen also uses cover crops, green manure and crop rotation to enhance the biological activity of the soil. We are the first farm practice Australian Demeter Badan mix in mainland of Asia. So the first one in Malaysia also. We know how good is it.
We don't need the bio pesticide or whatever kind of pesticide so it's really it helped the organic farmers to have less input and make the soil much healthy and no any pollution to the environment by producing food so we can produce high quality food without polluting the environment and poison the people so I think this is very meaningful for us to teach to other farmers so that other chemical farmers and organic farmers can learn this method. Mr. Fung, the first organic farmer certified in Cameron Islands. He wants to grow vegetables without disturbing the nature. He encourages other farmers to reconsider and work with the nature. So when we talk about farming, we talk about how we can live in harmony with nature.
We believe here the... Nature is balanced. Nature is perfect. Let us not try to disturb or disrupt the natural way.
If it takes three and a half months, it takes three and a half months. When you talk about living in harmony with nature, not to disturb and so on, then one has to learn to... Accept a lot of things that instead of trying to change, right?
For example, the weed you talk about, right? The weed generally are not welcomed by farmers or home gardeners because they eat up your plants and then they compete for the fertilizer and then they overcrowd your plants, right? So this is no, no, no.
Okay, besides all this negativity, do they offer you something? The weed is full of chlorophyll, with the sun, the photosynthesis, it gives you oxygen, and then what else? They protect your soil from being scorched by the hot sun, it keeps it cool, so the microbes in the soil is happy, and then when the microbes in the soil is happy, it's cool and moist.
Then they make food for your plants, right? And then during the monsoon rain in a country like Malaysia, it rains every day, heavy rain sometimes. So the weed will again protect the soil from being washed away, so it prevents soil erosion, right? And then... Sometimes some weeds may have some smell that some insects don't like, so they act as a repellent.
Sometimes they have some smell that some natural predators will like. Sometimes they act as a habitat for some insects, you see. So they do give you a lot.
So these are the parts that we forget to see, to consider before we kill them, right? So please slow down and reconsider before you kill. During this journey in Cameron Island, we met the pioneers of sustainable farming there.
These farmers emphasized the importance of a healthy soil, That means aerated, with nutrients and water available, and presence of microorganisms. The biodiversity, to enhance the interaction in the farm. Avoiding soil erosion and tillage, to maintain the microbiological balance. productivity.
The crop diversity to enhance soil fertility and allow pest and disease regulation. Therefore they implemented different practices such as polyculture, crop rotation, intercropping, use of local varieties, cover crops, compost or green manure. All these practices we just mentioned are a part of agroecological approach. This concept is still not really spread in Cameron Island. These agroecological practices could be an alternative for other farmers to produce in a sustainable way.
Now, let's discover sustainable practices in one of the major crop in Malaysia. Rice. Rice is the staple food in Malaysia that is found in every meal. Malaysians consume an average of 2.5 plates of rice per day. Paddy is the third most planted crop in Malaysia after pine oil and rubber.
Practices are mainly oriented on the use of chemicals. In an effort to reduce pesticides use in the state of Selangor, an eco-engineering project was created in 2015 by MARDI, the National Agriculture Research Centre, YADA Northwest, a governmental body involved in the project. in rice development and local farmers.
So we started the ecological engineering project on the paddy field in Iyadah, Baratlaut for the last three or four years. It started in 2015. So basically what we wanted was initially we started to plant flowers on the bunds, on the borders and also vegetables. It was on a three hectare plot on the first year and on the second year we proceeded to 10 hectares.
During the second year we decided not to follow up with the vegetables because we found out that it is not the cash. Cache crops and vegetables that we use was not suitable for that particular ecosystem due to several things and we decided to focus on the flowers, only on the flowers. So the reason on why we use flowers in the particular project in the PADI, Ecological Engineering Project in PADI, is to attract more pollinators and to attract more beneficial insects which happens to be either predators or parasitoids of the pests on the paddy.
An example of flower that they use in the project is the Tunera. They chose it for several reasons. Okay, first because of the yellow colour, the bright colour, they attract more pollinators in comparison to other flowers. And the second reason is Tunera is such a hardy flower that you can plant it and you can leave it.
Whereas all the other flowers that we tried to implement, they need certain care. You need to care and you need to manage them and the farmers just don't have the time to manage all the flowers. So initially we started with two farmers and then we grew to five farmers and then now more farmers are starting to... In the end, many people followed because their progress was better.
Moreover, we didn't use the shopping malls. Although the income is not much, we can reduce the cost of financing. So if it is reimbursed, we will be more profitable.
We call on our good friends to avoid the evil enemies and reduce the use of weapons. Not only the insects are bad, but there are also insects from good species such as moths. But thank God, the acceptance of farmers is increasing. We just need more time to continue this project. Another initiative concerning sustainable rice production in Indonesia Malaysia was set up by Captain, the first and only organic rice farmer in the country.
He tries to gather people in the rural area and enhance the rural economy. So why we build up this farm? It's not me, we, because I want to see community engagement. So I need all the youth or community engaged in this village.
This is like a pilot project for the rural area. I want to see... First, to build up the economy for the rural area.
Second, to transfer my knowledge for the people in the rural area. And then, we want to make sure all the abandoned areas we can reuse. So, all the concepts are more to organic.
More than organic, Captain decided to use SRI, System of Rice Intensification. This method plays a part in rural development as it prospers in community. System of Rice Intensification, SRI, is an agroecological methodology of growing rice which consists of increasing productivity by reducing the use of inputs such as water or organic pesticides. It has four main principles.
First one is young seedling. So usually we germinate and plant seedlings which are really young at the farm after four days. Single seedling, when we plant in the paddy field, we plant one seedling per spot and at a distance of at least 25 centimeters. Third is weeding.
We weed, which means getting rid of the weed, unwanted weed around the crop, every 10 days. during the vegetative stage and water management. The idea is to keep the soil always moist, always wet without flooding the paddy fields so we use less water. Here at Zee Lovely we go through different stages of rice production. The first is land preparation so we plug the soil and we make sure the straw of the previous harvest goes back to the soil.
So we turn the soil, we apply compost and usually we let the paddy rest for two, three weeks before starting levelling. We make sure that the paddy is flat, it will be helpful for the water management later on. And then marking, which means to mark a square grid pattern on the paddy fields which will be useful for us when we go to plant one seedling per spot.
Then seed selection, we select the good seeds. And then germination, we germinate them for four days. Planting, after four days we transplant the seedlings from the nursery to the paddy fields.
And then we start weeding, which is an activity that takes place every ten days for four times during the vegetative stage. So from day zero, day after planting, to 50. Weeding is one of the most important steps because first it gets rid of the weed, unwanted weed. that might compete with our crop for nutrients because we turn over the soil and we let air and nutrients go back to the soil and third we will give it also enough space we will allow the roots to grow without competing with each other and last reason is because we want to stretch the paddy and then we apply organic fertilizer or plant booster that we make here at the farm, then harvest and post-harvest, which means drying and packaging. This method reduces inputs and the costs related.
It allows an increase of the yield. In Malaysia, rice farmers with yields are around 3.2 tons metric per hectare. In Sri Lavely, we can get almost 15 tons metric per hectare if nothing happens like wild boar didn't attack, bird didn't attack, take away the grain.
If everything is normal control, so no wild boar, no bird, we can get 15. Now we only get around 8 ton to 10 ton per hectare. So we still have a high yield. Less chemical, healthy workers, healthy soil, fertilized soil.
Hi Yale! We try to show to new farmers who want to jump into organic farming. So it's like integrated farming.
They have rice, they have chicken, they have goat, they have vegetable. That's more to sustain. So when people in rural areas sustain, they don't need money to go out to buy something.
So we increase their income. That's right. System of Rice Intensification is a developing method in Malaysia. It is also supported by the NGO SREEMAS, the Malaysian Agroecology Society.
We are an organization that comprises of farmers, academicians, entrepreneurs in agriculture and all others who are interested in promoting sustainable agriculture in Malaysia especially. from the point of agroecology. So our mission basically is about bringing food security for all Malaysians. This is where our focus is and because we are rice eating people, we have a special interest in promoting agroecologically friendly rice farming systems.
And this is where we at SRIMAS, support system of rice intensification which is also known as SRI. We use SRI because it supports root systems and it is from the root system. that you get healthy plants.
Now healthy plants will grow big, will give good yields and the farmers will gain from this high yields and why not this is actually a very environmentally friendly system. And so if you take care of the environment, you'll be taking care of the farmers and the family that actually live on the land and the rice that they produce is going to be healthy rice. They are going to sell to consumers they are going to feed their families with healthy rice.
This is where it augurs well when we say we want to bring food security to Malaysians. And one of the main things is we need to give healthy sources of food to Malaysians. So this is where we need to put more effort into getting more farmers to plant SRI rice. All along our trip, we visited vegetable farms, rice plantations. Either Mr. Lee with his vegetables or Captain with his paddy fields, they all aim to produce on a sustainable way.
However, these initiatives represent still a minority in the country. We asked Dr. Norrida from the Faculty of Agriculture in UPM why these agroecological or sustainable practices were not more developed. For almost 30 years, what has been taught by the farmers on the field is following a calendar.
They have a specific calendar on the stage of the crops growth and then what they should do, either apply the fertilizers or pesticides. However, by going through all this way, in the long run, it's not very sustainable, especially for you're going to have a problem with the environment and of course for the safety of our food. Just give an example in the rice production.
In the rice production in this country, we have a lot of subsidies from the land preparation and the incentives of the harvest. So all through the stages of the crop production of the rice, I think there are a lot of subsidies of the inputs such as the seeds, the fertilizers. the pesticides and sometimes some crop enhancers.
So to increase, I mean to encourage the adaptations of the sustainable food production in Malaysia, I say we can re-look or re-learn again how to do it instead of giving unnecessary. With subsidies, we can spend more capital on teaching the farmers. First of all, we have to teach the extension workers, where they can work together with the farmers and learn together the sustainable methods of the food production on the farm. So I would say in this way, it's not in the short term.
It can't be done in the short term, but maybe it will take a few years before the farmers can adapt to this method. Providing teaching to farmers is one of the solutions to spread agro-ecological or sustainable practices over Malaysia. Without a new agroecological dimension, Malaysian consumers have to be involved in this kind of project. Through their choices, consumers support a certain type of agriculture. So Malaysian consumers have to be aware of the different types of agriculture.
And in order to inform the consumer, the mass media has a key role to play. They can spread what is currently being done in Malaysia. And then, the government has to be implicated. Actually, the organic market is really expensive in Malaysia.
the government could give subsidies to organic farmers to reduce the price of their products and make them affordable for consumers. In short and conclusion, the farmers, the consumers and the government have to work together in order to develop sustainable agro-ecological practices in Malaysia.