Kongsi Benih project
KONGSI BENIH PROJECT
Written by NAIIM RAZAK AND GOH ENG GIAP
Community Seed Reserve Initiative (IRBK) is a non-governmental organization that strives to promote agricultural biodiversity and ensure food security through the sharing of local seeds among farmers and communities. This initiative aims to protect traditional seed varieties from extinction, encourage sustainable farming, and guarantee access to diverse seeds for our present and future needs.
Biodiversity Conservation
Preserve and maintain local seed varieties that are endangered and rarely found.
Food Security Assurance
Ensure a diverse supply of seeds that are accessible and affordable.
Community Strengthening
Develop networks of farming communities that work together in managing and sharing seeds.
Seed Sharing
Communities, farmer associations, and individuals are involved in activities of collecting and sharing seeds, such as the Natural Agriculture Association of Kelantan, SRI-Mas, CAP, FKMM, and many others.
In 2025, under the SHARE SEEDS program, IRBK has organized several roadshow programs across all states in Malaysia.
AECOSS Conference and Exhibition
24-25 April 2024
The Agroecology Conference and Exhibition on Community Seed Systems 2024 (AECoSS24) was held on 24th and 25th of April 2024 at Bangi Avenue Convention Centre, Selangor, Malaysia. This conference successfully gathered around 150-200 participants including seed guardians and warriors, researchers, indigenous communities, small scale farmers, urban farmers, gardeners, NGOs, CBOs, CSOs, activists and exhibitors around Malaysia and other continents.
The conference was organized by 14 NGOs namely the Malaysian Food Sovereignty Forum (FKMM), Third World Network (TWN), Consumers’ Association of Penang (CAP), SRI-Mas, IDRIS Association, Pertubuhan Persaudaraan Pesawah Malaysia (PeSAWAH), Sahabat Alam Malaysia (SAM), GRASS Malaysia, Min House Camp, Natural Farming Association Malaysia (NFAM), MIM, Diribumi, Klima Action Malaysia (KAMY) and Pertubuhan Jaringan Ekologi dan Iklim (JEDI). AECoSS24 was supported by Agroecology Fund (AEF), SAVE Rivers (Malaysia) and the Agroecology and Sustainability of Agricultural Systems (Austria). Panels and participants from Australia, Kenya, Thailand, Zambia, Vietnam, Ghana, Tanzania, Philippines, Indonesia, India, Myanmar, South Africa, China and Malaysia gave their insights and research findings from their countries to raise awareness and new paradigm on various topics.
The aim of AECoSS24 is to bring together community representatives and guardians of biodiversity working on seed conservation initiatives based on agroecological approaches. The main objective of the conference is to promote Community Seed Systems (CoSS) through the lens of Agroecology (AE). Other than that, this conference provided space to share and showcase successful and best practices in CoSS around the world and Malaysia. Through this conference, participants were able to network besides recognising and empowering communities, seed savers, indigenous peoples and women as the guardians of biodiversity. Sharing experiences and stories were very important to raise awareness on the value and importance of seed saving, exchanging and sharing practices in agroecology-based food systems. Most importantly the conference was able to raise awareness on threats and challenges in agroecology-based seed-saving initiatives and offered recommendations to address these issues.
The exhibition featuring four thematic categories were held concurrently with the Conference. The first theme is Culture and Ritual where insights were given on the social and human connections to seed heritage and wisdom, values of heirloom seed cultures, rituals, folklores and stories behind seeds. The second theme is Seed Guardian/Warrior/Saver Corner where seed guardians and savers get to meet-and- greet, while sharing and exchanging their seeds. The third theme is Agroecology- based Knowledge and Technology that showcased inventions, innovations, and technology from agroecology-based CoSS. The final theme, Future-Nurture-Nature showcased the vital role of future generations, youth and children as seed guardians of the future. A total of 22 exhibition booths comprise of showcases by NGOs, CSOs, CBOs, residential organizations, farming and indigenous communities, seed guardians, permaculture practitioners and urban farmers. The local and international exhibitors displayed various items from a variety of seeds, saplings, banana chips, fertilizers, fresh and dried produce to natural baskets, yoyo toy from seeds, plannable papers and urban farming education materials. The wide range of materials and items demonstrated the diversity and richness of what a community seed system can be.
Community Seed Systems (CoSS) is a crucial embodiment of Agroecology for advancing just transition towards thriving and resilient food systems. These practices recognise the roles of farmers, indigenous women and communities in safeguarding local biodiversity through local wisdom and cultural heritage with spaces for co- creation.
WATAN project
WOMEN’S PARTICIPATION IN FOOD CROP PRODUCTION FOR THE TANGKAK COMMUNITY
Written by Aniizan IIsahak
On 1 February 2024, SRI-Mas was awarded by the All Party Parliamentary Group Malaysia to carry out a 10 month project titled “WOMEN’S PARTICIPATION IN FOOD CROP PRODUCTION FOR THE TANGKAK COMMUNITY”.
The project aims to have 10 women farmer champions to be active in scalable food crop production and marketing, supporting local food supply; to train on farming and marketing of food crops; to plant food crops for local markets and to market food crops to local markets.After the four month period, the progress of the participants will be monitored for another six months. SRI-Mas integrates a gender-sensitive approach by lessening farmers’ burden from farming, reducing their exposure to chemicals and unsanitary working conditions and enhancing their self-sufficiency. A central component of social learning is building social capacity that supports people in becoming agents of their own development.
#SRI4Diversity project
Upscaling agrobiodiversity-based rice farming systems through the System of Rice Intensification (SRI) in Malaysia
A #SRI4Diversity project
Written by Aniizan Isahak
On 29 June 2018, SRI-Mas was awarded by the Global Environment Facility Small Grants Project (GEF-SGP) to carry out a two-year project titled “Upscaling agrobiodiversity-based rice farming systems through the System of Rice Intensification (SRI) in Malaysia”.
The project aims to protect and promote agrobiodiversity by upscaling the practice of System of Rice Intensification (SRI) and FFSs in Malaysia through an ecosystem-based approach guided by three key principles: environmental capacity, social capacity and institutional capacity. SRI enhances soil conservation and improves crop growth with less water, less seeds and less external inputs. It also enhances food safety by reducing or eliminating the application of chemical fertilizers and pesticides and benefits the natural environment by relieving pressure of agriculture on ecosystem’s water resources. Moreover, it conserves rice biodiversity and promotes its sustainable use by discouraging monocropping.
Instead of relying on the conventional top-down linear approach for learning new technologies, in which farmers are viewed only as beneficiaries, the project will adopt social learning as an approach for agricultural extension and innovation. As an ecosystem-based approach farming system, SRI will increase farmer self-reliance upon on-farm resources and give them back their decision-making powers. The farmer-based learning approach will strengthen farmers’ capacity to observe, measure and understand the agroecological dynamics and benefits of sound rice management, particularly of SRI.
SRI integrates a gender-sensitive approach by lessening farmers’ burden from farming, reducing their exposure to chemicals and unsanitary working conditions and enhancing their self-sufficiency. A central component of social learning is building social capacity that supports people in becoming agents of their own development. It also facilitates the inclusion and empowerment of participants of mixed gender in terms of their competence, autonomy, independence and control. Thus, the social capacity of SRI promotes better living conditions and safer working environments for women and the community, free from the potential health hazards commonly associated with agrochemicals.
This project aims to initiate an alternative institutional structure (from farm to market) for agroecological-based rice production and supply chain. It focuses on the institutional arrangements through which agricultural extension services play critical roles in enhancing the visibility of sustainable rice value chain. Institutional capacity also pushes for well-equipped facilities and infrastructure that promotes local innovations and procurements, while leveraging on enabling policy environments for agroecological interventions in the country. Rice farming communities and key stakeholders in the project will realize the importance of shared values and aspirations of Malaysians in embracing sustainable transformation in agriculture. Institutional building at community level also encourages the establishment of community-based market structures such as agricultural cooperatives or social enterprises, formed through innovative processes that facilitate social learning. Knowledge transfer will be made available in the project to rice farmers through farmer to farmer exchange in a nature field environment.
