Reviving land, inspiring farmers: Lessons from Sri Lovely

At the Sustainable Food Trust, we are always inspired by stories that show how farming can regenerate soils, strengthen communities and offer viable alternatives to industrial agriculture. Sri Lovely Organic Farm in Malaysia embodies these principles, demonstrating how sustainable approaches can transform abandoned land into thriving farming systems.

Sri Lovely Organic Farm was set up in 2009 by retired army major Zakariah Kamantasha – who goes primarily by the nickname ‘Captain’. Having been stationed in this remote jungle region during his military days, Captain saw the adverse effects that rural depopulation and increased reliance on conventional, chemical-heavy food production were having on local communities.

He wanted to help give young people, in particular, a reason to stay. Working with others and local authorities, he also wanted to help in addressing a local health crisis that was seeing rapidly increasing rates of diet-related illnesses (such as diabetes) and health conditions associated with exposure to chemical sprays (including cancer and lung disease).

The result, after months and years of working with local families and landowners to clear and consolidate a 10-hectare parcel of land that had been overtaken by the jungle, was the establishment of Sri Lovely Farm. A few years later, it became Malaysia’s first certified organic rice farm. And today, it has become an important education and knowledge-sharing centre, helping to encourage a new generation of Malaysian farmers wanting to create a more sustainable future.

The back plots of grain at Sri Lovely Organic Farm in Malaysia

 

A brief history of Malaysia’s ‘rice bowl’

The northern state of Kedah has long been known as Malaysia’s ‘rice bowl’ (jelapang padi), providing about half of the country’s rice production today. Rice has been grown here for millennia [p.45], but centralised production was ramped up under the Siamese rule of Kedah in the 19th century. This was largely to feed the tin mines, trading ports, sugar and pepper plantations of neighbouring British Malaya, of which Kedah officially became a part with the Anglo-Siamese Treaty in 1909.

After that, however, a combination of cheap and plentiful rice coming from other British colonies (especially Burma) and the onset of a global ‘rubber boom’ that had (and continues to have) immense consequences on Malaysian landscapes and agriculture, the British rulers largely lost interest in rice from Kedah, and little changed for local rice farmers until independence in 1957. At that point, however, everything changed.

Living with the legacy of the Green Revolution in Malaysian rice

The domestic production of rice – a staple food for most of the population – became a key focus for post-independence Malaysia, and commercial, government-led production, with Kedah at its centre, increased dramatically in the 1960s. Despite some initial resistance from local farmers to the new “miracle rice” IR8 variety (which came out in 1966 and essentially marked the starting point of rice’s involvement in the so-called Green Revolution), the entire Kedah region was eventually transformed to conventional, high-input production systems by the end of the 20th century.

This shift, based on high-yielding modern varieties and synthetic inputs, caused the total volume of Malaysia’s (and Kedah’s) rice production to double between 1970 and the early 2000s.

Unsurprisingly, however, this also brought bigger problems: over the years, soil fertility decreased drastically, and farmers who could not afford the rising costs of chemical sprays and synthetic inputs simply abandoned their land, many heading to the city to find work. Together with ongoing urbanisation and a generational shift away from agriculture (not to mention the expansion of water-thirsty rubber plantations, which in addition to deforesting large swathes of land, have killed off much of the rich diversity of natural plants on which many communities, both human and ecological, previously relied), rural depopulation has been pronounced in these areas.

Innovation and adaptation – applying a System of Rice Intensification (SRI) principles at Sri Lovely

In response to this setting, after several years spent clearing the former farmland area which had been abandoned for over 30 years and observing what species grew or lived in the area, Captain set about establishing the farm in keeping with its surroundings as best he could. Working first on reviving and regenerating the soil, Captain began helping to restore natural soil ecology by selecting for some plants and animals, allowing the spontaneous dispersion of others. He then focused on the rice, favouring heritage varieties and traditional species (acquired from a local seed bank) that are better suited to Kedah’s conditions.

Following the principles of SRI (a low-input system of rice production first developed by French Jesuit monks in Madagascar, then codified and championed by Norman Uphoff of Cornell University), young rice seedlings are planted individually in a meticulously measured grid pattern (at least 25 cm apart), limiting nutrition competition between the plants while ensuring ample space, air and sunlight for each one.

This system, which has been applied all over the world, often results in a much higher yield per plant (if occasionally lower yield per plot) than conventional systems. More importantly, it requires drastically fewer inputs: up to 90% less seed, half as much water usage, and less need for chemical fertilisers.

At Sri Lovely in Kedah, what Captain also likes about SRI is that it encourages adaptation to particular settings and environments. Farmers used to be great innovators, he says, but we’ve “become lazy” because synthetic inputs take away the need to innovate or improvise.

When it comes to pest management, for example, Captain finds the best way is to “let the pests kill each other”. A number of selected plants, which attract certain types of insects, are planted as a ‘perimeter’ around the rice, maintaining a more natural equilibrium of predator-prey relationships and diminishing the risk of any one particular pest damaging the rice.

Lokman and Jun threshing the grain

 

Big problem, local solution – addressing rice’s methane problem

As well as contributing to much healthier soils, local ecosystems and local environments (by eliminating the use of chemical sprays), Sri Lovely also sets an example for more climate-friendly rice production on a global scale.

Worldwide, rice production accounts for over 10% of total methane emissions. The vast majority of these come from organisms dying and decomposing in anaerobic environments, such as when paddy fields are flooded, which also reduces soil diversity, killing off beneficial soil organisms such as worms and bacteria.

At Sri Lovely, however, the rice plots are not flooded but rather kept ‘moist’, and often drained. This exposes them to more weeds, but the rigid grid shape of rice plantings in SRI allows much easier weeding (done by driving a wooden stick with nails attached to it up and down the rows, wiping out any would-be weeds before they can establish themselves and without hitting any of the rice plants).

In terms of soil nutrition at Sri Lovely, fertiliser is fermented in blue tubs based on a combination of what the plant needs (which Captain trains people to determine by sight) and what is lying around the farm: some rotten dates leftover from Ramadan for potassium, maybe some baby bamboo shoots for phosphorus, or a few nitrogen-rich glaceriya leaves to help boost a droopy plant stem, for example.

Young plots of grain in the second garden

 

Spreading the love, maximising change

Once it was clear that this adaptable system was working, Captain has put more and more emphasis on the second part of his mission: to provide education, training, support and dialogue for others wanting to create positive, more sustainable, socially aware and ecologically harmonious food systems.

Education and sharing is a huge part of what Sri Lovely is about. Several of the dozen or so wooden, bamboo and thatch buildings dotted around the farm are explicitly dedicated to teaching: one a purpose-built classroom with an encyclopaedic library, another an open-air workshop and demonstration space, one a ‘mini paddy’ garden plot with an adjoined hut, where everything from initial seed selection to on-field weeding techniques to the concoction of those organic fertilisers, can be demonstrated. Hardly a week goes by at Sri Lovely without some sort of educational gathering or workshop taking place, whether it’s for local school children, the farm’s many international volunteers, foreign academics, other local farmers, government officials, and even Malaysian royalty.

In particular, however, Captain wants to encourage dialogue among farmers. Not only rice farmers, he says, but anybody wanting to learn from his experience or wanting to do something “in their own way”. This includes joining forces with other small farmers in order to discuss common issues, brainstorm potential solutions, and present a unified voice for actionable and impactful changes on a government and policy level (including the distribution of subsidies, which typically favour intensive conventional systems and even more damaging industries like palm and rubber plantations).

Lokman harvests the grain

 

One such initiative, launched in 2019, was the Local Farmers, Local Food gathering, where dozens of small farmers and natural farming advocates from around Malaysia were hosted for several days at Sri Lovely. The first gathering of its kind in Malaysia, this resulted in the presentation of a “Farmers Declaration” to Kedah’s Chief Minister, which has subsequently been built into a wider movement in recent years.

While the on-farm activities and daily life at Sri Lovely have changed little in the past 10 years, every year it seems that the dedication of Captain and his hard-working team is attracting more and more attention. It’s no surprise that, with the growth of demand for organic products rising both within Malaysia and internationally, more and more interest is being shown from producers and industry players to see how they can take advantage.

Luckily for them, and for many of us, people like Captain were at least 20 years ahead of them in this thinking. So, there is a well-established framework and network, one that can be crucial for encouraging a push towards more sustainable, equitable and healthy food systems.

It may only be one example from one particular part of the world, but the Sri Lovely story speaks to a more universal theme: that going your own way and setting an example for achievable, workable solutions can generate a ripple effect of change, inspiring action among grassroots changemakers and those shaping policy alike.

To read more from David, see his previous piece for the SFT about a similar project in Cyprus which is using chickens to help restore soils and reduce reliance on chemicals. You can also visit his website.

All images courtesy of David McKenzie.