A networking session with Kongsi Co-op, Pesawah, Idris Association, TWN and other NGOs, in conjunction with International Seed Day. Photos: Inisiatif Rizab Benih Komuniti
In Malaysia, farmers and communities across generations have engaged in the age-old practice of preserving seeds as a means of protecting traditional agricultural heritage.
However, the practice of seed saving has slowly been fading in Malaysia over the years.
For one, intellectual property protection regulations from trade agreements may pose more constraints on traditional seed-saving practices.
The prevalence of commercial seeds, combined with a lack of awareness among farmers about the benefits of seed saving, compounds the issue. Furthermore, a dependence on imported or foreign vegetable varieties has diverted attention from preserving and utilising locally adapted varieties.
Addressing these challenges is pivotal in fostering agricultural resilience, preserving biodiversity and ensuring food security. It is within this context that a transformative movement is taking root in the heart of Malaysia.
Inisiatif Rizab Benih Komuniti (IRBK), which translates to “Community Seed Reserve Initiative”, is a seed-saving project under the Food Security and Sovereignty Forum (FKMM), a non-governmental organisation (NGO) that works to promote seed heritage, seed sovereignty, farmers’ education and community development.
As a response to the challenges faced by traditional seed-saving practices, IRBK is actively sowing the seeds of positive change within the Malaysian agricultural landscape.
In our discussion with two key members, NurFitri Amir Muhammad, 39, and Izzeady Amir, 34, we explore the grassroots initiatives of IRBK and its impact on Malaysian agriculture.
Seed-saving is important to protect traditional agricultural heritage.
As the project leader of IRBK and a microbiology graduate, NurFitri focuses on the preservation of heritage seeds in Malaysia. His comprehensive report, “The Potential Impact of International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV) 1991 on the Malaysian Seed Sector, Farmers, and Their Practices”, published in June 2023, sheds light on the farming practices impacted by intellectual property protection of seeds in Malaysia.
Izzeady acts as the field manager, advocating for climate solutions in rural landscapes. With a background in environmental science, specifically in biodiversity and conservation, Izzeady offers insights into how IRBK champions and empowers individuals to safeguard traditional seeds through formalising the informal seed system.
Q: What is IRBK and what does your organisation do?
Izzeady: Rizab Benih is a platform we started in 2021 to document our informal seed system in Malaysia. We identify and visit seed guardians and do an inventory of seeds that they keep, and we teach them how to use the online form on our website to record their inventory. We have recorded 70 seed guardians and almost 2,000 different crops and seeds over the past two years. We label the seeds and encourage people to save, share or sell seeds.
Q: What is the difference between a formal and informal seed system?
NurFitri: There are two types of seeds in the supply chain. Formal seed systems are seeds that have been produced by companies. The contract farmers produce seeds for companies, and these seeds are protected by plant breeders’ rights. Most of the seeds are protected by this law and farmers can only save and multiply these seeds for their own use in very limited conditions. They cannot share or sell the seed to others like in the past as a part of their tradition. Most farmers would obtain their seeds from these companies.
Jarum Galah padi seeds kept in a glass bottle.
Izzeady: An informal seed system is a system where seeds are being preserved by people themselves. Seed guardians are part of these informal seed systems, and they could be home gardeners, farmers as well as community farms all over Malaysia.
Q: What is the primary goal of FKMM, the NGO that initiated Rizab Benih?
NurFitri: FKMM is a platform set up to help farmers fight for themselves. Farmers in Malaysia are not doing so well, with the exception of those with big capital. Individual farmers in villages do not have a voice to bargain.
They have to accept what is decided by the market, middleman or the consumer. You can imagine that a cucumber naturally will have variations in shape, and not all will grow straight. But the price difference (between a straight cucumber and a naturally curved cucumber) can be more than five times. We want to help farmers get a fair price for their produce.
Q: Why did you start Rizab Benih under FKMM?
NurFitri: This project was started to support FKMM’s vision of ensuring food security and sovereignty for Malaysian farmers. Instead of relying on one source of seed supply, we try to diversify the supply.
Izzeady: Having worked with many indigenous communities and villages, I found that much of the traditional knowledge regarding plants and ecosystems held by the older generation is more oral and not well documented, and we, the younger generation, are losing this kind of knowledge.
The IRBK committee members during a retreat at Ulu Yam.
Recently, an Orang Asli from the Temiar group in Kelantan passed away and it was a great loss. He had brought me on a tour to show me all the herbs that he used to (purportedly) cure many diseases.
It’s amazing because depending on the state, different plants are used. For example, for small cuts in Perlis, they use this plant called “Kapal Terbang” but in Kelantan, they use “Selaput Tunggul”.
Q: What seeds does IRBK try to preserve?
Izzeady: We record mostly edible plants, herbs for medicinal purposes, flowers and fruit trees. We try to highlight heirloom seeds, native plants and interesting varieties – for example, moringa with extra long fruit or a petola (loofah) which is more fibrous and suitable to be used for scrubbing.
Q: What are the benefits of seed saving in Malaysia?
Izzeady: The tradition of saving seeds is mostly done by those who live in changing seasons. Here in our Malaysian climate, we are evergreen and have no need to keep seeds.
That is why we are a bit behind in the seed industry because we don’t see it as a problem.
The seeds that are being sold in the farming industry are sold as a package together with pesticides and herbicides as well.
This takes away farmers’ resiliency as they will be more dependent on the system, which is not good.
The first commercial seed that we started saving was rice padi. In Malay communities, we have the “jelapang”, which refers to a small hut built next to the house where all the padi seeds are kept until the next season.
However, because most padi seeds are controlled by Bernas, you are not allowed to save the seeds or commercialise it.
Q: What is the danger in relying on the formal seed system too much?
NurFitri: Formal seed systems tend to supply seeds that are protected. A protected seed is a plant that has been given plant breeders’ rights, meaning in 20-25 years, no other person can reproduce the plant. The danger is it can undermine agrobiodiversity, with less variety planted by the farmers because those who decide what to plant are the companies, and not the farmers themselves. It will reduce biodiversity and the industry’s resilience to climate change and increase potential threat by diseases and pests.
Izzeady: In the US, there have been some cases where protected corn seeds have cross pollinated with some farmers’ own corn seeds in the open farm; and because they have the same genetics as the patented seeds, the company can claim that the farmer has stolen from them.
Q: Is the government currently encouraging farmers to seed-save and become seed producers?
NurFitri: The government currently is not encouraging farmers to save seeds because it is in the process of making seed-saving and seed-sharing more restricted with the proposed Seed Quality Bill, which obligates farmers and anybody who wants to process seeds to have a license. The amendment of the Protection of New Plant Varieties Act 2004 will give more monopoly to seed companies so that the government can join the UPOV 1991. These two laws will restrict farmers’ rights more.
Q: How would you encourage more people to become seed guardians?
Izzeady: Don’t throw away your fruit seeds; try and grow it on your own. Focus on non-hybrid seeds and preferably what is grown organically. Seeds are one of the basic necessities or foundations in farming and gardening. It is very important for us to empower our own resources for our future resiliency. On April 26, Inisiatif Rizab Benih Komuniti and FKMM will be organising an Agroecology Conference on Community Seed Systems 2024 (AECoSS24) in Bangi, Selangor, in conjunction with the annual International Seed Day. This event will be a platform to discuss strategic action focusing on food security and sovereignty, farmers’ rights and seed rights.
If you have a special variant of seed you would like to register with Benih Komuniti, find out more at www.benihkomuniti.com or follow them on Facebook.
Save seeds from the vegetables that you grow! The viability of your seeds depends on where you got the stock of seeds in the first place. If you are growing a variety of vegetables that is labelled as “F1 Hybrid” (seed suppliers will label their seed packets accordingly), these seeds are produced by intentionally cross-pollinating certain varieties and may be great in the first generation of plants, but may show weakness and not bear fruit in the second generation of plants, because they are still not a stable strain. (It takes about eight or more generations for it to be a stable variety.)
However, if you save seeds from varieties that are open-pollinated and are not labelled as F1 Hybrid, you have more chances of saving a stable variety, as they are usually an already stable variety that has been grown for many generations over. To avoid disappointment, for first-time seed savers, choose seeds that are open-pollinated.
When buying seeds, look for those that do not have the F1 label or ask your local community garden or farm. Always save seeds from the strongest plants – and not from the plants that have grown the smallest and have been ravaged by pests – to ensure that your next generation of vegetables are also just as hardy or even better.
Ready, Set, Grow! is a column brought to you by Eats, Shoots & Roots, a social enterprise with the aim of connecting people to nature through growing food. Follow them on Instagram and Facebook for growing tips and more.
A networking session with Kongsi Co-op, Pesawah, Idris Association, TWN and other NGOs, in conjunction with International Seed Day. Photos: Inisiatif Rizab Benih Komuniti
Jarum Galah padi seeds kept in a glass bottle.
Seed-saving is important to protect traditional agricultural heritage.
The IRBK committee members during a retreat at Ulu Yam.
