Seed Reserve in Penang, Peninsular Malaysia

The Consumer's Association of Penang (CAP) had started promoting agricultural biodiversity in its projects for decades by urging farmers to retain traditional cultivars on their farms and set up community seed reserves for collection of local varieties, indigenous vegetables and underutilized species of plants important to agriculture and food.

As of December 2022, CAP has a collection of 48 types of herbs and grows 65 types of vegetables in a rotation basis in a quarter hectare of urban farm in its office premises in Jalan State Mosque, Penang. The urban farm is also a center for propagating and sharing seeds. These seeds are shared with farmers, communities and urban gardeners

CAP had produced a seed saving guide which included a step-by-step guide on how to save seeds from twelve types of plants. This guidebook is given to program participants when we conduct seed saving programs and also seeds fair. These events are used to promote the farmers seed system.

Result : On the whole the seed reserve in CAP premises met its objective to serve as a base to build a resilient, diverse and sustainable farmer seed system , support and develop a seed saving and sharing network among indigenous peoples, small farmers and urban households.