Tan Siew Luang of Centre For Environment, Technology and Development, Malaysia (CETDEM), was the woman who introduced organic farming to our shores in 1986. Ms. Tan as she’s known, has taken the long road to where she is today in spreading the awareness.

She started off her own farm in late 1986 on a land near Sg. Buloh, and was determined to succeed. “A lot of people were sceptical to the notion of an organic farm,” she says. The biggest question posed to her was, “How are you going to control the pests?” Through trial and error, Ms. Tan managed the farm on her own. “I realised that if I wanted other farmers to go organic, I needed first-hand knowledge and to know that it was possible to achieve. It had to be seen,” she says.

Although she persuaded conventional farmers to visit her farm, they were not convinced. In time, she gave up the farm and went full on with outreach programmes for awareness of organic farms. This worked better with her knowledge in hand and she managed to convert a few conventional farms to organic ones. Then, she started doing exhibitions and encouraged these farmers to sell their products there. The journey didn’t end there for her. She continued by setting up a scheme for organic farmers. Her resilient efforts were finally paid off when the Department of Agriculture approved Skim Organik Malaysia. This was aimed at making organic farming a mainstream venture in the country. Today, she continues on her journey to get other farmers to go organic so that we can enjoy its benefits.

However, Ms. Tan expresses her concern on some of the future problems organic farmers may face. “These farmers are independent but not interdependent, and with the implementation of AFTA, it’s going to affect them. The threat will come from China, Thailand and Philippines; thus these farmers need to work together. If the government can alleviate the land for organic farmers, then they all will be in one place. Then they can have animals, orchards and they can co-exist. We’d like to initiate a co-op company for organic farmers. Our idea is not just about marketing but also to help them be honest, have commonality and really adhere to the organic farming principle. Without ethics, organic farming has no meaning,” she says.